Nexus method for stack analysis of geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GDT) problems

This paper describes a method called the Nexus method used for evaluating tolerance stack problems with position, circular runout, total runout and concentricity tolerances. The method constructs a graphical representation of features termed the Nexus cell. The cell contains all the geometric information of the feature in numerical values. After each feature is represented by a Nexus cell, the cells are linked up to form the Nexus model for the part. Once the model is completed, it can be used to evaluate GDT problems associated with the part. The method is capable of arriving at accurate results when dealing with several special cases of position tolerances. Applications of the proposed method have been illustrated and possible uses of such a method were discussed.