Disclosed herein is a method of horizontally structured CAD /
CAM modeling and manufacturing for concurrent product and
process design, comprising: selecting a blank for
machining into an actual part establishing a coordinate
system; and creating a master product and process concurrent model comprising: a virtual blank corresponding to the blank; a manufacturing feature;
virtual machining of the manufacturing feature into the virtual blank; where the manufacturing feature exhibits an associative relationship with the coordinate
system. The method also includes generating a product drawing of the actual part; and generating
machining instructions to create the actual part by
machining the manufacturing feature into the blank. Also disclosed herein is a horizontally structured CAD /
CAM model for concurrent product and manufacturing processes comprising: a blank for machining into an actual part; a coordinate
system; and a master product and process concurrent model comprising: a virtual blank corresponding to the blank; a manufacturing feature; the manufacturing feature virtual machined into the virtual blank; and the manufacturing feature exhibiting an associative relationship with the coordinate system. Further disclosed is a storage medium encoded with a
machine-readable
computer program code for horizontally structured CAD /
CAM modeling. The storage medium including instructions for causing a computer to implement the method of horizontally structured CAD / CAM modeling and manufacturing for concurrent product and
process design. Additionally disclosed is a computer
data signal for horizontally structured CAD / CAM modeling. The computer
data signal comprising code configured to cause a processor to implement a method of horizontally structured CAD / CAM modeling and manufacturing for concurrent product and
process design.