Design for manufacture On request Preview

Judge a part for how it can be made, before it is.

dfm check checks a part for the process you name with -process: a STEP, IGES, JT or Parasolid part for any, and a closed mesh for moulding, casting and printing. Each finding names the faces concerned and by how much it misses its limit, every limit a flag you can set:

• Machining: holes too deep or with an odd drill point, entering through slanted faces, too close together or to an edge; fillets smaller than a cutter; faces no cutter reaches; deep, narrow pockets.
• Sheet metal: thickness and bends found; bends too tight for the material, holes, slots and webs too narrow, features too near a bend, missing bend reliefs, short flanges; the flat blank's size, and its outline as DXF.
• Injection moulding, die casting and sand casting: the nominal wall; walls too thin or thick for the material, thick sections that sink, too little draft, undercuts, sharp inside corners.
• 3D printing (FDM, SLA, SLS and metal powder bed): a build direction chosen for the least support; thin walls, overhangs, narrow gaps, small holes and pins, and sealed voids that trap resin or powder.

dfm fill estimates how a part fills as it is injection moulded, from its shape alone: from the gates, given or placed, where the melt reaches when, where it may fall short, and where fronts meet as weld lines.

The design for manufacture module is a preview. It is granted on request, free for non-commercial use; see access and licensing.