The ‘Designers’ Sandpit’ is an environment for assembly-oriented design in which manufacturability techniques are integrated with advanced product modelling and geometric modelling concepts. First, this paper elaborates the philosophy underlying the development of the Sandpit and describes a prototype implementation. A number of manufacturability methods are briefly summarized and their deployment within the Sandpit environment is described. Finally, the potential for industrial application of the concepts within the Sandpit is discussed and areas for possible further research outlined.
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