This paper on "DECaF: Design Environment for Casting Using Features" was presented at the NAFEMS World Congress on Effective Engineering Analysis - 25-28 April 1999, Newport, Rhode Island, USA.

Summary

DECaF (Design Environment for Casting using Features) is a casting process design tool. DECaF facilitates the quick establishment of a preliminary process model and iterative refinement of the model based on analysis. The transfer of relevant information between the analysis and model refinement phases is managed with minimal user intervention.
DECaF provides the casting designer with an environment for designing a casting process as per a design strategy. The design strategy guides the designer through a particular sequence of design steps, each of which involves the creation and manipulation of pre-defined or user-definable process features and process parameters. DECaF automatically manages relationships among the design steps such as ensuring the revision of a design step when any of its predecessors is modified. The process features and process parameters encapsulate proprietary, holistic process design information, such as geometry, material, mutual relationships, and process conditions in the form of mathematical process variables. DECaF automatically manages the process variables associated with the process features and process parameters, and mutual dependencies. This enables quick construction and refinement of a parametric casting process model by easy manipulation of the process variables.
DECaF's feature-based process model is ideally suited for the automatic transfer of process information to the process analysis step. A wide variety of process analyses, such as quick castability assessment, yield assessment, cost assessment, detailed process simulation, and defect prediction, can be driven from a single process model. The need for a casting analyst's participation during analysis is minimized and, for certain types of analyses, completely obviated.
DECaF can be configured in two ways: 1) Analysis modules can be integrated into the DECaF environment, resulting in an integrated design tool; or 2) DECaF can be used as a design front-end for more sophisticated analysis tools. DECaF also provides the option of interfacing with external applications using STEP AP 203 or SAT (ACIS^TM(VI) geometry data files.
DECaF is based on SimBuilder^TM(VII), a software architecture that provides a common infrastructure for a wide range of product/process design software applications in the form of a reusable, object-oriented framework. This enables custom versions of DECaF to be developed at a lower cost and in less time compared to what is typically required for the development of new software. In each such custom version of DECaF, the design strategy, choice of features, parameters, and graphical user interface (GUI) can be tailored to the specific needs of a particular casting company.
DECaF currently addresses the sand casting and low-pressure die casting processes. Its scope can be extended vertically to other types of casting and injection molding processes and extended horizontally to forming and forging processes.