Design for Manufacturing (DFM)

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Capabilities
• Scope of accepted geometries
• API overview

Molding product designs start with CAD files and in order to get the manufacturable molding parts. Those CAD files should follow specific molding design guidelines. Using a Design for Manufacturing (DFM) strategy decreases possible issues in molding design from the beginning, saving both time and money.

Overview

The DFM analysis for Molding can be run on a CAD file in order to find any possible design issues, e.g. small rib and bosses draft angles, inconsistent outer diameter, etc. As a result of the analysis, features of the part that don't meet the DFM check criteria will be found.

As the API changes to accommodate the needs of users compatibility will be preserved as much as possible but is ultimately not guaranteed.

Capabilities

The DFM analysis can reveal possible design issues in a molding part, the full list of them is listed here.

Below is a simple example of DFM analysis.

3D model	Issues
	3x High Rib 3x High Screw Boss 2x Irregular Core Diameter Screw Boss 3x Irregular Thickness Rib 2x Irregular Wall Thickness Screw Boss 3x Small Base Radius Boss 3x Small Base Radius Rib 5x Small Draft Angle Rib 2x Small Draft Angle Screw Boss 3x Small Distance Between Ribs 3x Small Hole Base Radius Screw Boss 3x Non Chamfered Screw Boss

• DFM issues in Molding

Scope of accepted geometries

The DFM analysis can be done on B-Rep representations, namely it works with ModelData::Solid .

API overview

DFMMolding_Analyzer is the class that performs molding DFM analysis. It has parameters that allow to modify rules for analysis. There are 2 ways to perform DFM analysis:

• Using DFMMolding_Analyzer on a given shape. Molding DFM Analyzer Example demonstrates this approach.
• Using Molding_Data as an input parameter. In this case, one will need to get the molding data before running DFMMolding_Analyzer. It's useful approach that helps to save computation time if molding tools already used in code. Below is an example of how the molding dfm analysis tool can be used with this approach:

  Molding_Data aData = /* Get data using molding tools (e.g. Molding_Analyzer)*/;
  DFMMolding_Analyzer anAnalyzer;
  MTKBase_FeatureList anIssues = anAnalyzer.Perform (aData);
  /* Process issues */