Tolerancije
Tolerancije
Before we get started…
A note about Drawings in Onshape
Engineering Drawings (also known as Prints, for when they are actually printed) are a vital
part of the Product Development process. It is critically important to document our designs in a
clear and concise manner, such that the original design intent is communicated to others.
Engineering Drawings are meant to be shared - with others on the team, such as suppliers and
partners, immediate teammates and management, manufacturers and assemblers, and in some
cases the customer as well. In its simplest form, an Engineering Drawing is a 2-D document that
is used to explain to manufacturing how to make a part or assembly.
It is very important to learn how to create a “good” drawing, but first we must define what “good”
means. Let’s say that we want to manufacture the part we made in Lesson 2:
How do we communicate the part’s dimensions accurately to the manufacturers? We need to be
able to fully communicate the dimensions of the holes, the height of the extrusions, the fillet
radius, etc., in a clean and efficient way. Of course, adding the base sketch (picture to the left
below) helps to communicate how the part looks like from the Top view (right):
But sometimes, even presenting the 2D sketches that make the part isn’t enough. Notice that
the base sketch doesn’t exactly correspond with the Top view of the final model; the bigger hole
is modified, and the part is filleted. We somehow need to combine the information provided by
the two images above. This is where Engineering Drawings come in play.
Many companies and industries have their own standards and best practices, which we will not
try to cover here. Instead, we will focus on creating drawings which are easy to read, organized,
have a good use of space on the sheet, and are consistent. Professional designers and
engineers will agree that creating a “good” drawing is as much an art as it is a science. Here is
an example of an Engineering Drawing of our example part (annotations in blue are not part of
the Drawing, but we added them to label some key features):
We’ll be making this drawing in our first exercise. Since Engineering Drawings are a
communication tool, you can think of the information on them as a language. Engineering
Drawings usually have standard information such as the Drawing Format, geometry from
different views (Top, Isometric, Front, and Right etc.), dimensions, and tolerances. With enough
information, any manufacturing company should be able to make the exact same part just by
looking at the Engineering Drawing.
In an effort to standardize how this information is communicated, there are numerous standards
organizations across the globe such as ASME (in the U.S), ISO (in Europe), DIN (in Germany),
and JIS (in Japan). For the Onshape College curriculum, we will focus on creating drawings
according to the ANSI standard. More specifically this curriculum will reference ASME Y14,
within which are numerous standards to define how an engineering drawing should look. More
info can be found at www.asme.org.
Due to the advancement of these standards and the global use of 3D CAD software, it is
becoming more and more common to communicate to each other by just sharing a 3D CAD file.
It can’t get any easier in Onshape, where you can share the original CAD Design in its native,
parametric format! However, despite many industries moving away from using 2-D Engineering
Drawings, there are still many engineering and manufacturing firms who depend on them to do
business. Perhaps, at some point in the future 2-D drawings will become obsolete, but until then
it is very important to discuss the process of creating high quality engineering drawings.
Before proceeding, it would be very helpful to review the Onshape specific procedures in the
Onshape help documentation on drawings here: https://cad.onshape.com/help/#drawings.
Pro Tip: The “Four Views” layout is a very common layout for engineering drawings, which is why
it is offered here as a shortcut. (It is only available by using this “Right Click” shortcut). When
selected, it automatically populates the drawing with Four commonly used views. The views are,
starting with the top-right and going clockwise, Isometric, Right, Front, and Top. Most simple
mechanical parts can be dimensioned using the Front, Top, and Right views, and it is common
practice to provide an Isometric view for reference as well.
2. Now we have a new drawing, and notice we have a new toolbar across the top as well.
Take some time to hover over each button and read the description. From left to right the
tool sections cover Views, Dimensions, Geometric Tolerancing, Annotations, and
Reference Geometry:
3. Let’s start by creating dimensions in the front view (in the lower-left corner). Select the 2-
point linear dimension . Then select the two points as shown, followed by a third point
to place the dimension (this is a similar workflow when creating a dimension within a
sketch in the part studio):
4. Once placed, the dimension value should be shown like this:
5. Let’s create another height dimension on the right side:
6. Next, we’ll need to add some reference geometry to the top view for dimensioning. Select
the centermark tool, , and select each circle in the view. The “+” sign will appear in
the center of each circle:
7. Now, let’s create a dimension between the centermarks using the 2-point linear dimension
again:
Pro Tip: If you made a mistake, you can always select the dimension and press delete to get rid
of the dimension.
8. Next, let’s add the diameter dimensions for the holes using the Diameter dimension tool,
Pro Tip: Notice how the diameter dimensions are lined up with the horizontal dimension. You can
do this by “waking up” the inference, similar to the way you did in sketching. Before placing the
dimension, hover over the dimension you want to align. Several snap points will appear in red as
you hover:
Drag away from the snap point and a dotted horizontal line should show up. The dotted line and
the red crosses tell you that your dimensions are now horizontally aligned:
This is done on purpose, so it is easy to read. In this case, these three dimensions reference the
same geometry, so aligning them makes it easy for the reader to comprehend quickly. Small
details like this can prevent miscommunication, therefore saving you time and money in the
machine shop! However, note that once the dimension is made and subsequently dragged
around, you cannot align it.
9. Next, let’s add dimensions for the keyway, again aligning the dimensions as we go:
Pro Tip: There are multiple ways in which we could have dimensioned the keyway, but the method
above is preferred, as it is the easiest to measure. This can save time and money during
measurement and inspection processes!
10. Next, let’s add the diameter dimension to the large boss:
11. Next, let’s add the Radius dimension on the right side. We use the radius here, instead
of the diameter dimension, because it is not a full circle:
Tolerances
12. Let’s change the number of decimal places on the R0.750 from three to two. Make sure
you are not in another tool (the [Esc] key will exit any tool you are in), and select the
dimension:
13. A tolerance icon pops up, now hover over that to expose the Dimension Panel. In
engineering, the tolerance states how much variation in dimension is allowed during
manufacturing:
14. Pull down the “Precision” icon, , and select 2 decimal places:
15. Click anywhere outside the dialog box to exit out of it. This final dimension should look like
this now:
Pro Tip: Removing the “zero” in the third decimal place might seem like an insignificant change,
but it has a very significant impact. Let’s inspect our drawing format a little more closely. In the
bottom right corner of the format is our title block, and in it is a list of the drawings “standard
tolerances”:
Here we state the standard tolerances for linear and angular dimensions, and surface finish.
Focusing on the linear tolerances (left side), we see that there is a specific tolerance associated
to a dimension. Depending on how many decimals it has, the tolerance changes. Generally
speaking, the more decimals a dimension has, the smaller (“tighter”) the tolerance. Let’s add
values to our tolerance block as shown. Double clicking will allow the values to be updated. Let’s
use these typical machining tolerances:
Now, changing the number of decimals on our dimensions means something! Updating our
radius dimension from “R0.750” to “R0.75” actually changes the tolerance from +/- .005 to +/-
.01. Since this radius is on the outside of the part, it is not that critical to its performance, and so
we have communicated that. As a designer, any time we can make the tolerance larger
(commonly referred to as “opening up” the tolerance) we should, because that will almost
always make the part cheaper and easier to manufacture. At the same time, if there is a
particular feature that is very critical to the parts function or performance, we may want to make
the tolerance smaller (also known as “tightening it up”).
16. Keyways are typically very important features, so let’s communicate that by tightening up
the tolerance on our keyway. In this case, let’s get practice by adding a specific tolerance.
Click the 0.380 dimension, and hover over the tolerance icon. Pull down the “Tolerance”
icon, and select “Symmetric”:
17. Now, let’s tighten the dimension up to +/- .002:
Pro Tip: Symmetrical Tolerances are the most commonly used ones, because they are very
straight forward - it’s like saying, “Try to build this part to the nominal dimension shown, but you
may be off an equal amount in either direction”. Again, this works in most situations, but there
are several other choices we can use when we are communicating the tolerance of our
dimensions. Here is a short description of those other choices:
Deviation: This allows you to type in asymmetrical tolerances. For example, a popular
application is shown below, which is like saying, “The nominal dimension is .380”, but if you’re
going to be wrong, it can’t be any larger, it can only be less by .005” at the most.”
Limits: This allows you to just type in the limits of the tolerance band. This is used when you
want to say something like, “I don’t care what this dimension is, as long as it is between .385
and .375., inclusive”
Basic: This strips all tolerances away from the dimension, therefore it may only be used in
conjunction with a Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing (GD&T) Feature Reference Frame.
We will discuss GD&T a little bit later but for now, it is important to know it is here. Graphically,
the dimension is surrounded by a rectangle:
18. The top view is now complete, so let’s add the final dimension to the drawing in the Right
view (bottom right of sheet). Add a radius dimension to the fillet. It is not a critical feature,
so it should only be two decimal places.
19. Congratulations, you’ve finished your first Engineering Drawing in Onshape!
2. Select the ANSI_B_INCH template, and select [OK]. Note that this time, you can only
choose “No views”. There should now be an empty drawing in the background, and
Onshape is looking to insert a part or assembly. Let’s browse to Part 2 from Lesson 2.
Once selected, Onshape will ask us to place a view. By default, it is the Front view,
change it to the Right View, and place it on the sheet as shown:
3. Now, let’s add a projected view above it. Select the projected view icon and click
on the existing Right view that you just placed. Then click on the screen just above it (if
you hover directly above the existing Right view long enough, a preview of the Top view
will show up):
4. Let’s add another projected view just to the right of the first view. This time, let’s use a
different method. Right-Click on the First view, and select “Create Projected View”:
5. Place the view just to the right of the first view:
6. Finally, create an isometric view, by projecting the first view up towards the top right
corner:
7. Upon second glance it appears that our drawing views are bit too big for our format.
Let’s update the scale of our drawing views so there is more room for dimensions. Right-
click on the view in the bottom-left corner (our first view) and select “Properties...”.
Update the scale as shown:
Pro Tip: The scale is “zoom level” of the views relative to the size of the drawing format. A Scale
of 1:1 is a 100% zoom level. If the first number is smaller, like 2:3, then the view is smaller, and
if the first number is larger, like 2:1, then the view is larger. It is important to have the views
large enough so that the detail of the geometry can be seen clearly, but at the same time they
need to be small enough that there is enough white space around the views for dimensions,
tolerances, and notes. If the views need to be big to show detail or there are many views on the
sheet, then a larger sized format may be needed. When in doubt, go big.
8. Select the green checkmark, and the entire drawing sheet should update like this:
9. Starting with the top left view, let’s add the following dimensions (note that the R0.75 is
only two decimals):
10. In this case, we have two identical holes, so we will add a “2X” prefix to the
corresponding dimensions. First, select the following three dimensions:
11. Hover over the tolerance icon, and type “2X” in the text box:
12. The view is now complete, and should look like this:
Pro Tip: In this case, we added a “2X” to the 2.000 dimension, because there are two holes on
the right side of the dimension, which are directly above each other. This “2X” note is not
mandatory, since it would be implied that the holes are above each other, but in this case it didn’t
take us any extra time, and when in doubt, it is better to be too specific, than not specific enough.
Remember, mistakes in the machine shop are time consuming and expensive!
13. Next, let’s dimension the bottom left view. Use the “Line-to-line angular dimension tool”,
, for the angle dimension (Note the 0.13 has two decimals):
14. Next, let’s add the following dimensions on the bottom-right view (note the number of
decimals being used):
Pro Tip: Make sure the letter “X” in 6X is capitalized. In fact, all text should be capitalized on an
engineering drawing, unless otherwise required. This is defined by ASME Y14.2.
15. There is one last pair of dimensions missing, do you know which one?
It is the chamfer on the top and bottom of the large bore. There are several ways to
dimension this, but for practice (and thoroughness), we are going to create a cross-
section view to accomplish this. Click the cross section view icon and select
horizontal:
16. Next, hover over the center of the large bore, until a small orange circle is shown. Then
click:
17. Now, place the view at the bottom of the drawing sheet. (Note how the drawing view is
automatically named “A-A” and the section view arrows in the main view are also labeled
“A”. This naming designation is mandated by ASME Y14.3) :
18. Now, we add the following chamfer dimensions (pay attention to the decimals!):
Pro Tip: Shown above are two different, and equally acceptable methods for dimensioning a
chamfer. The top dimension shows the outer diameter, which is easy to measure for inspection,
and the bottom dimension shows the depth of the chamfer, which is easy to program into a
Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) machine. If there is doubt which is the preferred
method in your situation, ask your local machinist. The best designers in the world are best
friends with a machinist!
Detailed View
Practice Exercise #3:
1. Let’s get some more practice creating dimensions and tolerances. Using Part 3 from
Lesson 2, recreate the drawing as shown using the ANSI_B_INCH template:
2. Now, if you noticed, we still need to finish locating and detailing the slots. Let’s start by
creating a centerline through the slot. Select the centerline tool and select the two
straight edges of the slot:
3. Repeat for the top slot, and now we can create vertical dimensions to locate them:
Pro Tip: Notice how the 2.380 dimension is a tighter tolerance (three decimals) than the 0.56
(two decimals). This is because we are treating these two slots like a hole pattern. Generally
speaking, the location of a hole pattern with respect to the outside of a part is a looser tolerance
than the dimensions within the pattern itself. This allows the part to be inexpensive and high
quality at the same time! This is a relatively advanced design topic. It’s okay if it doesn’t make
sense yet, but it is important to highlight details like this because every dimension and tolerance
on an engineering drawing has a specific purpose. After some practice, things like this will be
second nature!
4. Next, we need to dimension the slots themselves. Since this view is already quite full
with dimensions, let’s use a detail view. Select the detail view icon and select a
point in the middle of the slot to center the view:
5. Now select a point to define the size of the detail view. Try to choose a point which
allows the circle to not intersect with any of the existing geometry or dimensions:
6. Lastly, place the view towards the bottom of the drawing sheet, where this is plenty of
open space to put dimensions around the view:
8. Finally, clean up the drawing by (1) making sure the Detail View Letter is outside of the
part geometry, (2) adding a centerline, and (3) adding the word “TYPICAL” to the detail
view caption by double-clicking on the text box.
Pro Tip: “Cleaning up the view” is a common, and sometimes necessary thing to do. We want to
make sure the view is easy to read, and not confusing on the eyes. Here we did 3 important
things: (1) make sure all text is outside of the part geometry. This is important so the shape of
the part can easily be picked up by the eye. (2) adding the centerline makes sure that the slot in
the detail is shown exactly as it is in the original view. Consistency is key. (3) Adding the word
“TYPICAL” means that the dimensions of this slot are typical to the part (i.e. the other slot is the
identical size). This saves us time in having to dimension the other slot as well.
Also note that when you move one of the projected views, the rest of the views move as well
(except the isometric). This is because Onshape aligns the views such that the edges are
aligned:
This is good engineering practice; by doing so, we can know how the views are connected. You
can think of it as placing the different views of the model on the corresponding faces of the View
Cube and unfolding the View Cube to a flat cube layout.
9. The finished drawing should now look like this. Good job!
Auxiliary View
Practice Exercise #4:
Using Part 5 from Lesson 2, let’s create a drawing with an auxiliary view. Auxiliary views are
views which are not aligned with any of the primary (Front, Right, Top, etc) directions. In the
case of this sheet metal part, there is a face which is bent at a 45° angle, which we will need to
dimension.
1. Let’s prepare, by creating the rest of this metric drawing (this means you should select
ANSI_B_MM when making the drawing). Once again, keep an eye on the decimals:
For the text that says “FULL R,” use the “Note with leader” tool . Write the “THK” suffix under
the 1.90 dimension similar to how you wrote the “2X” prefixes before.
Pro Tip: We need to update the tolerance block for this metric part. Since millimeters are smaller
than inches, the decimal places need to be updated to include a “NO DECIMAL” option, and
three decimals is removed here for this sheet metal part. Also, fractions are almost never used
in metric (because it is based on tenths, and not twelfths), so that is removed from the tolerance
block as well.
2. Now, let’s select the auxiliary view icon, , and select the 45° edge from the main
view:
3. Drop the new view in the white space on the sheet. Before we start dimensioning, let’s
add centermarks to the two holes we need to dimension:
4. Next, let’s dimension the holes. Since the view is at an angle, it is best to use the Point-
to-Line Dimension, , and reference the centermarks. This will make sure that the
dimensions are aligned with the edges of the part. Also, let’s add the diameter dimension
as well:
5. Now, using the Line-to-line dimension, , let’s add an overall dimension to the view:
6. Finally, let’s clean up the view by removing the tangent lines on the view. Do this by
right-clicking and choosing “Hide tangent lines”. This makes it easier to see face of the
part, and to distinguish between the geometry and the leader lines from the dimensions.
Good job!
creating Datum A. Select the Datum Tool, , and place the datum on the bottom
witness line of the 1.620 dimension (this implies that the bottom surface of the part is
Datum A):
3. Next, let’s add a parallelism callout on the top surface of the part. Start by selecting the
Geometric Tolerance icon, . You will be prompted with the Geometric Tolerance
dialog. Fill it out like this, then click the green checkmark:
4. Next, click on the top surface of the part to place the arrow, and then click out in the white
space to place the annotation:
Pro Tip: So, what does this notation mean? In layman’s terms it says, “this surface must be
parallel to Datum A within .005 in”. The reason this might be desired, is that technically one side
of that surface could be 1.615 and the other could be 1.625, and the part would be “in spec”,
since the original tolerance is 1.620 +/- .005. However, the top and bottom surfaces would be
over a degree out of parallel. This might not sound like much, but one degree can add up over a
long distance. If, for example, a 12” rotating disc was mounted to this bracket (as sketched
below), it would be off by more than a quarter inch on each side. That’s a lot of wobble!
5. Next, let’s add a second datum. This time, we’re going to establish Datum B on the inner
surface of the bore. To do this, place the Datum on the 1.125 Diameter dimension as
shown:
6. Next, let’s create a concentric tolerance, using the same workflow as before. This time
place the tolerance just beneath the 2.000 diameter dimension. As you might imagine, this
means, “This surface must be concentric to Datum B within .005 in”. :
7. Next, let’s create a positional tolerance for the two small holes. To do this, we must first
convert the linear dimensions to basic dimensions. This will override the tolerances that
are being inherited by the tolerance block of the sheet format. To do this, select the 3
dimensions that locate the holes, expand the Dimension Panel, and select “Basic” from
the tolerance pull-down menu. The Dimensions will now have a rectangle around them:
8. Next, create the following Geometric Tolerance:
9. Finally, place it just beneath the diameter dimension for the holes. Good Job! The final
drawing view should now look like this:
Pro Tip: This tolerance says, “These holes must be positioned within a .005” circle from the
nominal location, with respect to Datums A and B”. To better understand what this means, let’s
compare this to the original linear tolerance of +/- .005” in both horizontal and vertical directions.
Here is a pictorial showing the tolerance ranges overlaid on top of each other:
The original tolerance, shown by a black square, allows the center of the hole to be anywhere
within a box that is .01” wide by .01” tall. The geometric tolerance, however, only allows the
center of the hole to be within a .01” diameter circle, shown by the blue circle. This means that
the geometric tolerance is “tighter”, since it won’t allow the center of the hole to be in the pink
shaded areas, whereas the original linear tolerances would.
In addition, when we say “with respect to Datums A and B”, we are referring to the datums that
would be used to inspect this tolerance in a production/quality control environment. Datum A is
the surface of the part that would be rested on the inspection table, and Datum B is the surface
that the holes are measured from.
Great job! These are very advanced topics, so fully understanding them is not critical at this time
in order to become a proficient designer in Onshape. Again, this is not meant to be a
comprehensive lesson on GD&T, but rather an introduction to how (and why) you would utilize
GD&T in Onshape.
Assembly Drawings
There are a number of reasons why we create Assembly drawings, but for the most part we are
communicating how an assembly is built. In its simplest form, an Assembly drawing shows a
single view, with Balloon callouts to each individual part. As assemblies get more complex,
there can be many views, notes for adhesives & lubricants, torque specifications for fasteners,
and cross references to manufacturing fixtures, tools, or even quality control documents.
Generally speaking an Assembly print has more notes and balloons and less dimensions than a
part drawing. Again, each industry and company has its own specific standards, and this
curriculum is designed to just give an introductory lesson on how to build simple assembly
drawings in Onshape.
the balloon tool, , found in the Drawing Toolbar. Write “2X” to signify the two bolts using the
Note tool :
2. A new tab will open up in the active browser with a print-friendly version of the
document. From here, follow the prompts for printing.
3. In addition, you can also print any Part Studio or Assembly in Onshape. Open the tab
you wish to print, expand the Document menu, and select “Print…” just as with a
drawing. A Print dialog pops up with paper size and orientation options, and a
convenient dotted line appears to help position the model for printing:
4. You can click and drag the items (parts, models, drawings) to position it within the dotted
page borders using Onshape mouse actions for moving parts.
5. Select the desired paper size.
6. Select Portrait or Landscape orientation.
7. When satisfied with the setup of the page, click to display the page as it will be
printed (print preview):
Updating Drawings
Pro Tip: There is an important, but somewhat subtle functionality with drawings that should be
discussed, and that is in regard to updating drawings. In traditional CAD tools, the drawing is
always updated to the latest CAD model by default. Any formal changes are then tracked with a
“business process”, either via manual paper documents (called Engineering Change Orders, or
ECO’s for short), or a digital Product Data Management (PDM) or Product Lifecycle
Management (PLM) software program. The majority of companies utilize a business process
that includes both a digital PDM system and a manual paper ECO process for redundancy.
In Onshape, however, there is no formal PDM system. Since the Onshape platform is 100%
cloud based, it does not need one. As a result, automatically updating the Engineering Drawing
to the latest version of the CAD model is not desired. Instead, the Engineering Drawing must
explicitly be updated, using the Update Drawing icon, . In most cases it is greyed out (as
previously shown), but when the CAD model has been changed, the icon lights up like this:
. Updating the drawing may take some time, and cannot be undone, so be sure that it is
necessary before doing it.
Summary
Let’s take a second to reflect what we learned in this lesson.
1. We learned that you can make Engineering Drawings by selecting “Create drawing…” in
the tabs on the bottom of the screen.
2. You can add linear and angular dimensions to your Drawings.
3. You can choose to add projected, section, or auxiliary views to your Drawings.
4. Each dimension has an associated tolerance, which determines how accurate your part
should be during manufacturing.
5. You can add detailed views and annotations to your Drawings.
6. Geometry Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) is an advanced drawing method that
many companies use in their Engineering Drawings.
7. You can also create Assembly Drawings.
Next lesson, we’re going to start our first major project, the Bluetooth Speaker. Make sure to
brush up on everything we’ve learned so far!