  In this paper, we present "FabSearch", a prototype search engine for sourcing
manufacturer service providers, by making use of the product manufacturing
information contained within a 3D digital file of a product. FabSearch is
designed to take in a query 3D model, such as the .STEP file of a part model
which then produces a ranked list of job shop service providers who are best
suited to fabricate the part. Service providers may have potentially built
hundreds to thousands of parts with associated part 3D models over time.
FabSearch assumes that these service providers have shared shape signatures of
the part models built previously to enable the algorithm to most effectively
rank the service providers who have the most experience to build the query part
model. FabSearch has two important features that helps it produce relevant
results. First, it makes use of the shape characteristics of the 3D part by
calculating the Spherical Harmonics signature of the part to calculate the most
similar shapes built previously be job shop service providers. Second,
FabSearch utilizes meta-data about each part, such as material specification,
tolerance requirements to help improve the search results based on the specific
query model requirements. The algorithm is tested against a repository
containing more than 2000 models distributed across various job shop service
providers. For the first time, we show the potential for utilizing the rich
information contained within a 3D part model to automate the sourcing and
eventual selection of manufacturing service providers.
