Horizontally structured manufacturing process modeling for fixtures and tooling

A manufacturing part created by a method of horizontally structured CAD/CAM manufacturing for fixtures and tooling, comprising:

• a contact area geometry selected from a master process model for tooling or fixture modeling;
• extracts created from said master process model;
• a tooling model corresponding to said contact area geometry including virtual machining said tooling model to generate said fixtures and tooling;
• said fixtures and tooling created by machining in accordance with a machining instruction;
• and
• said tooling model exhibiting an associative relationship with said contact area geometry.

A storage medium encoded with a machine-readable computer program code for horizontally structured CAD/CAM manufacturing for fixtures and tooling, said storage medium including instructions for causing a computer to implement a method comprising:

• creating extracts from a master process model;
• selecting a contact area geometry for tooling or fixture modeling;
• generating a tooling model corresponding to said contact area geometry;
• virtual machining said tooling model to generate said fixtures and tooling;
• generating machining instructions and drawings to create said fixtures and tooling;
• and
• said tooling model exhibiting an associative relationship with said contact area geometry.

A computer data signal for horizontally structured CAD/CAM manufacturing for fixtures and tooling, said computer data signal comprising code configured to cause a processor to implement a method comprising:

• creating extracts from said master process model;
• selecting a contact area geometry for tooling or fixture modeling;
• generating a tooling model corresponding to said contact area geometry
• virtual machining said tooling model to generate said fixtures and tooling;
• generating machining instructions and drawings to create said fixtures and tooling;
• and
• said tooling model exhibiting an associative relationship with said contact area geometry.