Automatic generation of tolerance schemes
AssigneeDassault Systemes SolidWorks Corporation
InventorsClay Tornquist, Todd Jarvinen, Christopher Garcia
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Automatic generation of a tolerance scheme includes accessing data defining a three-dimensional model that defines a part for manufacture, identifying a tolerance feature in the three-dimensional model, determining at least one unconstrained degree of control for the tolerance feature, automatically creating a tolerance scheme for the tolerance feature, and rendering the tolerance scheme and the three-dimensional model in a window such that the tolerance scheme annotates the tolerance feature. The tolerance scheme is based on an engineering standard for communicating a tolerance and constrains the unconstrained degree of control.
Claims19
A computer-implemented method for automatic generation of a tolerance scheme, the method comprising:
- accessing data defining a three-dimensional model that defines a part for manufacture;
- identifying a tolerance feature in the three-dimensional model;
- determining at least one unconstrained degree of control for the tolerance feature by constructing a data structure storing information about a plurality of degrees of control relevant to the tolerance feature;
- and for each degree of control relevant to the tolerance feature, indicating in the data structure that the degree of control is one of controlled, required to be controlled, and not required to be controlled;
- marking in the data structure that one of the plurality of degrees of control is controlled when a pre-existing constraint is applicable to said one of the plurality of degrees of control of the tolerance feature;
- automatically creating a tolerance scheme for the tolerance feature;
- rendering the tolerance scheme and the three-dimensional model in a window such that the tolerance scheme annotates the tolerance feature;
- and
- wherein the tolerance scheme is based on an engineering standard for communicating a tolerance;
- and
- the tolerance scheme constrains the unconstrained degree of control.
A computer-readable data storage medium comprising instructions for causing a computer system to:
- create a constraint for an initially unconstrained degree of control of a tolerance feature in a three-dimensional model of computer aided design;
- represent the constraint as a tolerance scheme displayed in a window and annotating the tolerance feature;
- and
- wherein a type of the tolerance feature determines a tolerance type to include in the tolerance scheme;
- the type of the tolerance feature determines a degree of control required by the constraint, the degree of control being the initially unconstrained degree of control, and the degree of control being listed in a data structure configured to indicate one or more degrees of control required for the tolerance feature, the data structure enabling one of the degrees of control listed in the data structure to be marked as controlled when a pre-existing constraint is applicable to said one of the degrees of control of the tolerance feature;
- and
- an attribute supplies a value for the degree of control.
A computer-aided design system comprising:
- a processor operatively coupled to a data storage system, the data storage system storing a three-dimensional model;
- and
- a data storage memory operatively coupled to the processor and comprising instructions to configure the processor to:
- construct a data structure listing a plurality of degrees of control required to constrain a tolerance feature, wherein the plurality of degrees of control required are determined by a type of the tolerance feature;
- mark one of the plurality of degrees of control listed in the data structure as controlled when a pre-existing constraint is applicable to the one of the plurality of degrees of control;
- calculate a tolerance for a second one of the plurality of degrees of control, wherein calculating applies an attribute specified for the second one of the plurality of degrees of control;
- and
- display a tolerance scheme that represents the tolerance, wherein the tolerance scheme annotates the tolerance feature in one of a two-dimensional or a three-dimensional view of a model comprised of the tolerance feature.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.