Automated horizontally structured manufacturing process design modeling

A manufactured part created by a method of horizontally structured automated CAD/CAM manufacturing process, comprising:

• a blank for machining into said manufactured part;
• a coordinate system;
• a master process model comprising:
• a virtual blank corresponding to said blank;
• a manufacturing feature wherein said manufacturing feature is characterized by virtual machining of said manufacturing feature into said virtual blank, said manufacturing feature exhibiting an associative relationship with said coordinate system;
• and
• said actual part created by machining said manufacturing feature into said blank in accordance with a machining instruction
• manufacturing process rules captured in a spread sheet;
• and
• said spread sheet exhibiting another associative relationship with said master process model.

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

• selecting a blank for machining into an actual part;
• establishing a coordinate system;
• creating a master process model comprising;
• a virtual blank corresponding to said blank;
• a manufacturing feature;v
• virtual machining of said manufacturing feature into said virtual blank, said manufacturing feature exhibiting an associative relationship with said coordinate system;
• and
• generating machining instructions to create said actual part by machining said manufacturing feature into said blank;
• capturing manufacturing process rules in a spread sheet;
• and
• said spread sheet exhibiting another associative relationship with said master process model.