Abstract: To deal with the issue of the reusability of the retrieval results difficult to be ensured by existing methods,which requires engineers to further determine their reuse value,an associated machining process-guided subpart retrieval approach for parts with pockets is proposed to search the similar 3D geometry with reusable associated machining process in structured machining process data.First,a parameter-driven model for the feature’s associated machining process is established to reveal the machining process parameter-driven characteristic of similar feature from the perspective of machining geometry,machining precision and cutter geometry.Then,a feature similarity assessment approach merging with the associated machining process of similar feature is presented using the pocket’s medial axis transform.Finally,the subpart extraction method based on sub-graph isomorphism is presented to calculate the similarity between matched features.A prototype system has been developed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach.