A features-driven knowledge-based approach to the quantitative assessment of castings for ease of manufacture is presented. Geometric features such as undercuts, holes, sharp corners and hot spots are recognized from a solid model of the casting and analysed by a number of dimensionless criteria functions. The criteria have been developed through a detailed study of design heuristics used by practising engineers and are written as functions of geometric attributes of component and tool features. This is useful for identifying problem features in a casting at an early stage and for objective comparison of two or more design solutions for manufacturability. The proposed approach lends itself to computer implementation for automating the design of castings in a concurrent engineering environment.