Automated feature recognition (AFR) has provided the greatest contribution to fully automated CAPP system development. The objective of this paper is to review various approaches for solving three major AFR problems: (i) extraction of geometric primitives from a CAD model; (ii) defining a suitable part representation for form feature identification; and (iii) feature pattern matching/recognition. A novel, detailed classification of developed AFR systems has been introduced. This paper also provides a thorough investigation of methods for geometric feature extraction, emphasizing STEP standard application and, finally, a review of recent research reports in the field of AFR with rule-based feature pattern recognition. We discuss potentials and limitations of these approaches and emphasize directions for further research work.