Articles related to reading engineering drawings and interpreting GD&T on the prints
To understand the thread requirements on your drawing, you need to know common standard thread information. In this article, we will be discussing thread diameters, threads per inch and thread pitch.
Precision tops the list of priorities in CNC machining since being off by a few thousandths is enough to cause serious errors. While no machine yields a 100% accuracy rate, specific approaches have been undertaken to manufacture components efficiently and economically.
A keyed joint is used to ensure orientation or restrict rotational movement between parts, as in the case of joining a shaft with a coupling. We discuss how a keyed joint is made and inspected in this article.
In this article, we outline the basic process for adding GD&T to your drawing using SolidWorks. The accompanying video goes into full detail, walking through the entire process for an example drawing.
Some parts, such as those made of rubber or sheet metal, may fail inspection due to deformation from gravity if left in their "free state." This can be prevented by invoking a "restrained state."
Though many people refer to the GD&T Position symbol as "True Position," they are not the same thing. Read on to learn the difference between Position and True Position and how they work together to define the position of a feature.
We get a lot of questions from students asking why they would want to use Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) over coordinate dimensions. Some believe that using GD&T will result in tighter tolerances and increase...
What is a Datum Reference Frame? Datums are used in Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing drawings to create a reference system for inspecting a manufactured part. This reference system is called a Datum Reference Frame (DRF)....
Having a good understanding of Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing is very important for anyone working in a mechanical field. GD&T is the language used in design, manufacturing, and quality inspection to communicate on engineering prints....
The most common way to produce an internal thread is to drill a hole and then use a tap to produce the thread. This is usually referred to as a tapping drill for the size...
Geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) is a system in manufacturing that can be traced back to the 1940s. It was developed by Stanley Parker while he worked at Royal Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire,...
How are tolerance limits defined? The previous articles in our Intro to Tolerances series have answered the questions, “What is a tolerance?” and “Why use tolerances?” This third and final article in the series explores...
Why use tolerances? In our previous article, “What is a Tolerance?” we introduced the concept of manufacturing tolerances and why they are necessary. In this article, we are going to focus on the benefits of...
What is a tolerance? If you take a look at an engineering drawing, you will notice that there are always limits, or tolerances, placed on a dimension. Why does the designer do this? When a...
What is GD&T? If you are involved in design or manufacturing, you may be familiar with the term, “GD&T,” or “Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing”. Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing is a set of rules and GD&T...
Orthographic views allow us to represent a 3D object in 2D on a drawing. Orthographic views can show us an object viewed from each direction. How the views are laid out on a drawing depends...
A question we are often asked here at GD&T Basics is, “what is a basic dimension?” – These dimensions are often fairly confusing as they look very similar to other dimensions you may be familiar...
This post is in response to a question that we received on our question line from Gilroy. Gilroy asked us about the drawing projection method in an example problem that was a part of our...