Abstract
Static CAD models are the CAD models that do not have feature information and modeling history. These static models are generated by translating CAD models in a specific CAD system into neutral formats such as STEP and IGES. When a CAD model is translated into a neutral format, its precious feature information such as feature parameters and modeling history is lost. Once the feature information is lost, the advantage of feature based modeling is not valid any longer, and modification for the model is purely dependent on geometric and topological manipulations. However, the capabilities of the existing methods to modify static CAD models are limited, Direct modification methods such as tweaking can only handle the modifications that do not involve topological changes. There was also an approach to modify static CAD model by using volume decomposition. However, this approach was also limited to modifications of protrusion features. To address this problem, we extend the volume decomposition approach to handle not only protrusion features but also depression features in a static CAD model. This method first generates the model that contains the volume of depression feature using the bounding box of a static CAD model. The difference between the model and the bounding box is selectively decomposed into so called the feature volume and the base volume. A modification of depression feature is achieved by manipulating the feature volume of the static CAD model.