These violations drive up the cost of the part. 2 holes violate the hole depth to diameter ratio, there are internal sharp corners in the rectangular slot, a hole with flat bottom, fillets on the outside edge, deep pockets and so on. As you can see there are a number of problems with this part.

This is the setup page for Mill/Drill processes. Let’s go through setting up rules in DFMXpress to check these parts: For most materials the bend radius should be at least equal to the material thickness I took those episodes as learning experiences because there’s nothing like learning from a highly experienced model maker on how to design and manufacture parts.ĭFMXpress uses a set of rules we establish for the following types of machining:ġ) Drill Rules for various types of holes.Ģ) Mill Rules for general types of milling operations such as: Every now and then one of the Model Makers would appear at my desk and ask me “son, how would you make this part?” When that happened you wanted to crawl under your desk because the next thing you heard was all the reasons why my beautifully design part couldn’t be made in the shop and some exotic expensive process like EDM had to be used to make it. The Model Shop was manned by a dozen or so Journeymen who knew how to make parts. During the prototype stages of the product design process we had parts made in the Model Shop. I certainly could have used a tool like DFMXpress when I started my career as a design engineer at Xerox. DFMXpress also helps us conform not only to good manufacturing guidelines but also company standards for best machining practices. This is a tool we can use to improve our designs by ferreting out those difficult, impossible or expensive to manufacture features we add to our designs. DFM stands for Design For Manufacturability.

DFMXpress is the smaller brother of the full blown version DFMPro by HCL Technologies, LTD and is included in each level of SOLIDWORKS.

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