COMPUTER-AIDED PROCESS PLANNING - STATE-OF-THE-ART AND FUTURE-DEVELOPMENT

Computer-aided process planning (CAPP) is regarded as the critical link between design and manufacturing. Particularly in the integration of computer-aided manufacturing, process planning plays an outstanding role in the integrated How of information. This paper gives a broad view of today's situation in computer-aided process planning in a real industrial environment. Characteristics for the classification of CAPP systems are derived and the main trends in the future development of CAPP software are pointed out. Feature-based modelling of manufacturing processes as the basis for integration-oriented software development is briefly described.