CAD databases are the core element to the management of product information. A key to the successful use of the databases is a rational method of query to and retrieval from the databases. Although it is parts geometry that users eager to retrieve from the CAD databases, no system yet supports geometry-based query. This paper aims at developing a new method of assessing geometric similarity which can serve as the basis of geometric query for CAD database. The proposed method uses ASVP (Alternating Sums of Volumes with Partitioning) decomposition that is a volumetric representation of a part obtained from its boundary representation. A measure of geometric similarity between two solid models is defined on their ASVP tree representations. The measure can take into account overall shapes of parte, shapes of features and their locations. Several properties that a similarity measure needs to satisfy are discussed. The geometric query developed in this paper can be used in a wide range of applications using CAD databases, which include similarity-based design retrieval, variant process planning, and components selection from part library. An experiment has been carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method, and the results are presented.