A tolerance system to interface design and manufacturing

In this article the concept and a prototype of a feature based integrated tolerance support system is described. The system consists of a “functional view” and a “manufacturing view” onto the tolerances. The “functional view” supports the designer finding appropriate solutions concerning dimensions and tolerances for certain functions like “bearing seat” or “transfer torque”. The “manufacturing view” contains information about the feasibility, production cost and time of a tolerance. This knowledge based on experiments is stored in a SQL database. The manufacturing information is given to the designer and he/she can alter his/her decisions in a very early phase of the design process if problems arise. Implementation platform of the fully CAD integrated support system is CoCreate’s SolidDesigner.