hi, my name is Sean, I am Cad technologist using
Inventor 2012 Professional. I would say I am an intermediate CAD
designer. I have little to no issues modelling products, but my
detailing is lacking. I work at a company that had all there design work
done through 3rd party companies. They hired me to reverse engineer a
lot of there own products so they don't have to pay the 3rd party
companies anymore. An example of one of their products is an electrical
substation, basic tube frame, sheet metal doors and frames. I have
modelled and detailed all components using a general tolerance rule. But
do I need to incorporate GD&T? Feature Control Frames and Datums? If not, when would GD&T be
applied. I know that in the upcoming year, we are going to start
producing our own equipment (LHD machines and Scissor Deck equipment) which is much more advanced and will require
more detailing and tolerancing than a tube frame structure. I
have 3-4 books on GD&T and have been re-learning it (graduated
college in 2006). But I can't seem to find when it needs to be applied.
Is it dependent on the builders or if the products is going to be
stamped by an engineer?Any help or info would be great.ThanksSean