Representation and reasoning of geometric tolerances in design

The geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) specifications of a design are directly associated with its performance and functional requirements. They also govern the manufacturing and quality control processes needed to achieve those requirements. This paper reviews recent work in geometric tolerance representation and reasoning and presents a generic and uniform graph-based representation scheme, called the Tolerance Network, to represent GD&T specifications across a part or assembly. The network can accommodate GD&T specifications related to the function, behavior, manufacturing, and inspection requirements embedded in design specifications and supports the use of different types of tolerances. The network also accommodates common design practices such as the specification of overconstrained features and parts. The necessary properties of such a network are discussed that allow under-and overconstrained design specifications to be detected and analyzed.