Attention engineers! There’s an easier way to conduct Tolerance Analysis for your CAD designs.
Transforming CAD designs into real and tangible parts is not only rewarding on a personal level but also professionally fulfilling. It combines creativity, problem-solving, and hands-on experience, all culminating in the sense of accomplishment that comes from creating something real from an abstract concept.
However, as you already know, physical parts deviate from the idealized representation (the design model) due to many different challenges and manufacturing constraints. Tolerance analysis involves assessing the impact of variations in dimensions, geometries, and other parameters on the final product’s performance and functionality. By utilizing Tolerance Analysis, designers ensure proper fit and alignment of the product components.
Improve Quality & Design Innovation
If the goal is to improve quality and design innovation, enable your engineers to perform comprehensive tolerance stack-up analysis. Traditionally this process is a massive pain i.e. repetitive trial-and-error tasks and tedious testing. This part of the design process can be frustrating and often slows down design teams. However, it doesn’t have to be this way!
The PTC Creo EZ Tolerance Analysis Extension is a dynamic computer-aided engineering (CAE) tool powered by leading Sigmetrix technology. This extension helps designers by creating a faster, more intuitive workflow to assess the impact of dimensional specifications on your product designs before prototypes or production.
The software provides algorithms to help engineers identify the optimal tolerance values that meet the design objectives while considering various constraints. This aids in making informed decisions and reducing the time spent on manual analysis and evaluations.
By considering these variations even earlier in the design process, engineers can make more informed decisions to ensure that the final product will perform as intended. Cheers to reinforcing Closed Loop Manufacturing!
The Positive Business Outcomes of Using EZ Tolerance Analysis
Below is a high-level overview of the positive business outcomes this PTC solution proves to provide for manufacturing companies:
- Speed time to market
- Mitigate risk
- Improve productivity
- Reduce costs by reducing rework and scrap
How EZ Tolerance Analysis Makes Your Workflow Less Stressful
Intuitive User Interface
Achieve your goals efficiently with minimal frustration. The EZ Tolerance Analysis extension’s user-friendly UI enables you to maintain a flow and continue work without disruptions as it is integrated into the familiar Creo environment. This mitigates any steep learning curve and helps with productivity to get new users up and running quickly and confidently. If you need help getting set up with the technology, give us a shout. We can help maximize your workforce capabilities and your technology investment.
Complexity Management
The EZ Tolerance Analysis software provides tools and features to manage complex designs efficiently. It offers intuitive interfaces and workflows that simplify processes regarding defining tolerance features. The extension extracts relevant information directly from your CAD models, reducing manual effort and potential errors. Visual dashboards: say goodbye to tedious spreadsheets.
Problem Identification and Resolution
No more flying blind, EZ Tolerance Analysis provides visualizations and statistical outputs that enable engineers to identify potential issues and bottlenecks in the assembly or system. After pinpointing problematic areas, engineers can devise effective solutions – such as adjusting tolerances, redesigning components, or modifying manufacturing processes.
Quick Iterative Design Refinement
Perform your “what-if” scenarios quickly and accurately. Using Sigmetrix technology, get immediate feedback on the effects of tolerance adjustments and trade-off analysis. Engineers can quickly refine and optimize tolerances based on the analysis results, reducing the time required for iterations.
Improved Collaboration
The software facilitates collaboration among multidisciplinary teams involved in the design and manufacturing process. Easily share tolerance analysis data, models, and reports via HTML reports to ensure everyone comprehensively understands design intent and can make informed decisions. Visual and data-backed reports can be shared with the shop floor, suppliers, or other stakeholders, facilitating effective communication and collaboration. Providing clear documentation helps to minimize misunderstandings and costly mistakes, saving time and effort in the design and manufacturing process.
Standards and Specifications Compliance
Ensure compliance with built-in libraries of industry standards and specifications. Engineers can access these libraries to ensure that defined tolerances comply with the relevant standards. Ensure compliance with ASME and ISO standards for your designs and create products that align precisely with customer requirements while operating within acceptable tolerances. This feature helps streamline the process of defining tolerance features by providing pre-defined templates and guidelines that match industry requirements.
Overall, EZ Tolerance Analysis empowers engineers to make data-driven decisions, reduce uncertainty, and enhance the efficiency and quality of the design and manufacturing process. It aids in achieving design objectives, meeting customer requirements, and delivering reliable and cost-effective products.
Back-Up Your cad Designs with Stack-Up Analysis
The technology performs comprehensive tolerance stack-up analysis by applying two methods for increased accuracy and precision- worst-case analysis and statistical analysis.
Worst-Case Analysis: Worst-case analysis, commonly employed for critical components, examines the scenario where each component in the stack-up attains its maximum acceptable measurement.
Statistical Analysis: On the other hand, statistical analysis utilizes statistical distribution models to represent the variation of each component. These distributions are then combined to predict the overall distribution of the assembly measurement.
Related Technologies To Use With Tolerance Analysis
Combine Tolerance Analysis with Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) to ensure your designs comply with ASME and ISO standards. Or take your designs even further to contain all the data needed to define the product with model-based definition (MBD). With MBD, your model becomes the source authority across the enterprise. The outcome is shorter product development cycles, reduced costs, and enhanced product quality.
PTC continues its investments in enhancing simulation-driven design and generative design with the new Creo 10. Some new features include Rotational Symmetry, Mass Point Constraints, and Remote Loads. Additionally, Creo Simulation Live now includes Contact Simulation options and improved options for fluid and structural results. Creo Flow Analysis and Creo Simulation now have better animation and multibody support.
For more Simulation and Analysis, we also recommend PTC’s Creo Simulation Advanced powered by Ansys technology. The brand-new Creo Ansys Simulation Advanced analyzes nonlinear contact and materials, with combined thermal and structural analysis. For more information about the latest release of Creo 10 check out the blog here.
Creo Parametric is a powerful computer-aided design (CAD) software that has been helping engineers and designers bring their ideas to life for over 30 years. With the release of Creo 10, users can expect a number of new features and improvements in productivity, designs, and more!
What’s New in Creo 10
Discover Creo 10’s newest improvements and enhancements.
User Interface Enhancements
PTC has made a big splash with the release of Creo 10, including an enhanced user interface.
Split & Trim Tool
Use this tool to quickly and easily split or trim a model, making it painless to work with and modify your model. Additionally, the ability to propagate appearances and references during Boolean operations makes it easier to maintain consistency throughout a project.
Stretch Tool in Warp
Utilize the Stretch Tool to select defined references to stretch models, making it easier to create complex shapes and designs. Users now have the ability to select Datum Planes, Points, Axis, Coordinate Systems, Surfaces, Curves, Facets, and more.
Freestyle and Style Tools
Both tools are enhanced with Rotational Symmetry and Smooth Normal Connection, making it easier to create organic shapes and designs. These tools are perfect for designers who want to create complex, freeform shapes that are difficult to create with traditional CAD tools.
The Model Tree
Creo’s Model Tree tool has been improved, making it easier to restructure and reorder assemblies to reduce confusion and improve the management of complex projects.
New Pattern Parameters
Finally, the pattern capability in Creo 10 enables users to drive pattern member count for nested patterns. Create complex patterns quickly and easily, saving you time and improving overall productivity.
Optimize Your Design
Take your design process to the next level with Creo 10’s newest additions.
Composites
Designing composite materials has never been easier with the new features in Creo. The software now offers a broad set of functionalities for defining ply layup, ply sections, transitions, and ply order. This allows you to create a resulting solid geometry and inner mold line (IML) quilt that meets your exact specifications.
In addition, Creo’s new Splicing and Darting operations, makes it easier to create complex composite designs. Once a design is complete, you can automatically generate a complete plybook documentation of the final layup sequence.
With new composite design features in Creo 10, you can easily create high-quality composite materials that meet your needs and specifications. Whether you’re designing for aerospace, automotive, or any other industry, Creo’s composite design tools can help you create the perfect product.
Electrification
Creo 10 presents new features that streamline and enhance the process of designing for electrification.
Split/Merge Harness Tool for Cabling
One of the most significant additions is the Split/Merge Harness Tool for Cabling. This tool allows users to split a harness into two separate pieces and later merge them back together. This feature is particularly useful when working on complex designs that require multiple harnesses.
Simultaneous Harness Design
Another key feature of Creo 10 is the ability for multiple users to work on the same harness design simultaneously. This collaborative design approach saves time and ensures that everyone is on the same page. The application-centric tree is another useful addition, which provides three different views, including Cables, Bundles, and Connectivity, to make it easier to navigate.
New ECAD Capabilities
Creo 10 includes new ECAD capabilities, such as paste masks and hole parameters. These features make it easier to create accurate designs that meet the specific needs of each project with greater precision and accuracy.
Ergonomics
Creo 10 optimizes and simplifies the design process for ergonomics.
The Visual Field
Perform Reflection Analysis to analyze the reflective properties of objects in the environment and how they impact the user’s visual experience. The reflective object orientation can be controlled by adding a rotation value around one or two axes, giving you greater control over the design process.
Creo Manikin
Another key feature of Creo 10 is the Manikin, which now support multiple reach envelopes, including the index and middle finger, thumb, and center of the palm. Creo Manikin allows designers to create more accurate models of human movement and reach, making it easier to design products that are comfortable and easy to use. Additionally, the Manikin libraries are now stored as inseparable assemblies to provide better management and user access.
Enhancing Model-Based Definition and Implementing the Digital Thread
Creo 10 introduces significant updates to Model-Based Definition (MBD) and Digital Thread capabilities, to better create, manage and access real-time product data across the entire product lifecycle.
Enhanced 3D Model Annotations
One of the most significant additions is the ability for users to relate symbols or surface finishes to other annotations in the 3D model. This feature allows designers to create more accurate and detailed models, making it easier to communicate design intent to other stakeholders and downstream activities.
Creo 10 adds the ability for annotations to inherit their annotation plane from the parent during placement. This feature ensures that annotations are placed correctly and in the right location, saving time and improving accuracy. Additionally, any movement of the related parent annotation would also be applied to related symbols, behaving as a group when being assigned to other combination states.
GD&T Advisor Updates
Creo 10 includes improvements to GD&T semantic behaviors, including general profile tolerances and enhanced compliance with detailing standards. These changes make it easier for designers to create accurate and detailed models, ensuring that the design intent is communicated effectively throughout the product lifecycle.
Furthermore, any changes made to GD&T annotations will automatically update the corresponding semantic references of general profile tolerance. Additionally, Creo 10 now supports straightness and profile of Line Geometrical Characteristics for ISO GPS models. Create more accurate and detailed models, ensuring that the design intent is communicated effectively.
Advanced Simulation and Optimization Capabilities
Creo 10 presents a range of new features that enhance and streamline the process of simulation and optimization.
Support for Non-Linear Materials
This includes Neo-Hookean hyperplasticity, linear orthotropic elasticity, and bi-linear plasticity.
Combined Thermal & Structural Analysis
Another key feature is the support for combined thermal and structural analysis. Enable your designers to easily simulate how a product will perform under both thermal and mechanical loads, ensuring that the design is optimized for real-world conditions.
Support for non-linear contact, including new contact types such as frictional and rough, helps to create more accurate simulations of real-world contact.
Expanded Contact Simulation Options
PTC included improvements to Creo Simulation Live, to improve result options for fluids and structures. Furthermore, Creo Flow Analysis and Creo Simulate now have better Animation and Multi-Body Support.
Rotational Symmetry
Allows designers to create more accurate simulations of rotational components.
Point Mass & Remote Loads
Finally, Creo 10 introduces the ability to add Point Mass and Remote Loads to create more accurate simulations of real-world loads.
Creo 10: Additive and Subtractive Manufacturing
With Creo 10’s latest features, manufacturing processes are now more efficient and effortless. One of the most significant additions is the support for additive manufacturing.
New Lattice Types
This enables your designers to create new beam-based lattice types, including rhombic, rhombic+diamond, dodecahedron, and elongated dodecahedron. For formula-driven lattices, Creo 10 supports simulation-based variable wall thickness and highly efficient I-graph-wrapped (IWP) lattice cell. Additionally, Creo 10 supports Auxetic Cells Structures for 3D printing. Auxetic Cell Lattices produce geometry that exhibit a negative Poisson ratio.
High-Speed Milling
High-Speed Milling supports barrel tools for both wall and floor 5-axis finish, reducing tool path time and improving surface finish quality. Additional control for CUTCOM and clearance has been added to Area Turning, making it easier to create accurate and efficient toolpaths for subtractive manufacturing processes.
Get started with Creo 10 Today
Creo 10 is an exciting new release from PTC that brings a plethora of new features to the design table. Whether you’re a designer or an engineer, Creo 10 is a game-changing tool that will help you create complex shapes and designs, manage projects, and improve productivity for more innovative products.
Curious to see how Creo 10’s features compare to other versions of Creo? Check out how Creo is continually enhancing its tools to provide you with the most up to date features for your design process.
To learn more about how Creo 10 can positively impact your business or to experience the new features first-hand, book a free demo now.
