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Annotations can be used to create dependency trees for knowing what features change when a given parameter changes. User interfaces may also want to highlight geometry created by a modeling operation, or geometry that depends on a proposed change or on the input geometry.
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Annotations introduce a naming scheme for the elements of the modeling operation. Such naming schemes know the input geometry so that a given name can reference a specific element in the input geometry. Likewise, the naming schemes know about the output geometry. The output naming scheme are detailed enough to provide specific names, such as "left lateral edge" or "top edge" in a sweep.
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Both the naming scheme and the dependencies are stored within the feature modeling engine. The new annotations are the source for some of the information that a feature modeling engine needs. The annotations are highly granular, noting both its place within the operation and its parent geometry.
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Annotations by themselves do not provide all the answers as to the full set of geometry and the dependency information of a particular entity. The information can be built up incrementally when processing the annotations after an operation. Each time an entity is seen as a parent to another, the other entity can be added to its set of dependents. The set of dependents for each entity must be maintained by the feature modeling engine.
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