New feature based design software development

This paper proposes a new feature based design software, called RFD. The main goal of the presented software, together with another software developed by the author in the purpose of the assisted generation of the numeric conduct files for turning operations, is to make up a Low Cost CAD/CAM program package configured according to the requirements, the needs and the facilities of a certain type of client. The commercial CAD systems work with primitives, but too many modeling operations are needed, when dealing with complex parts design. The RFD software represents a method and an example on how the SME´s (Small and medium enterprises) could build their own feature libraries, which could be implemented by adapting the general CAD systems to specific industrial products. A case study is presented using the RFD program, to test its capabilities and its compatibility with other CAD systems.