Geometric tolerance specification to support concurrent engineering

The geometric tolerance specifications of a product design are directly associated with its performance and functional requirements. They also govern the manufacturing and quality control processes needed to achieve those requirements. The paper presents a framework and computer implementation that provides automated methods for geometric tolerance specification to support concurrent engineering. Based on geometric product specification of ISO/TC 213, the generation and kinematic model of variantional geometric constraints network is presented. The applications of the network to specify geometric tolerance types and values for assembly and cost are studied. An example is analyzed to show the scheme to be effective.