Automated Tolerance Analysis of Mechanical Assembly Using STEP AP 242 Managed Model-Based 3D Engineering

Abstract

Tolerance analyses of mechanical assembly play a very crucial role as the accumulation of tolerance affects the functionality of the product in actual service conditions. There are various methods that can be applied to a mechanical assembly to perform tolerance analysis. With the advancement in computer technology and the advent of numerous CAD packages, there is a scope to automate the process of tolerance analysis. This paper is focused on the automation of tolerance analysis using STEP AP 242 Managed Model-Based 3D Engineering. An attempt to automate the process of tolerance analysis is reported in this paper for a mechanical assembly with GD&T using matrix method by means of a software module developed in Python.