Free SOLIDWORKS Tools - DFMXpress

We all know that manufacturing costs can be expensive, and we are all trying to minimize costs! Did you know that simple geometry features that we create every day can be adding significant costs to your part? Are you aware that there are standard tooling sizes and guide lines such as how deep you can drill a hole?

SOLIDWORKS has a free tool that will help analyze your model to identify these types of issues that may allow you to make some minor design changes that can significantly reduce your costs. This gets more important as many of you start to look at the SOLIDWORKS CAM tools now available in 2018.

Are you using the correct depth to diameter ratio for your drilled holes?

Do your holes have flat bottoms? Standard drills have a coned bottom. Flat bottoms require special tooling.

Are you drilling partial holes? Holes that are too close the edge of a part can cause the drill to wonder. This will cause inconsistent holes and can damage your tools.

These types of issues and much more can be identified using DFM products.

Here are a couple frequently asked questions about DFM.

Q: What is DFX technology?

A: DFX, as it is popularly known, stands for “Design for X” where X can represent a variable such as Manufacturability, Assembly, Serviceability, Reliability, Quality and so on. DFx technology, as developed by Geometric, is a revolutionary technology framework for designers that facilitates upstream validation for DFx. Leveraging years of manufacturing expertise, it is engineered to help advice the designer on common problems faced downstream in the product lifecycle.

Q: What are the key benefits of DFMPro?

A: A typical organization follows and maintains its own set of design review checklists based on their best manufacturing practices. Conducting a manual design review against the checklist is a cumbersome task which often leads to errors. DFMPro automates the design review process. It provides the following key benefits:

• Allows early prediction and prevention of DFx issues
• Assists evolution of optimal design and product quality
• Facilitates concurrent design of product and process
• Decreases lead-time by reducing backtracking and design iterations

To see a video from Geometric

DFMXpress is a great tool to double check your parts to make sure you are making the most cost effective product. Below are a few of our past articles that also talk about the DFM tools.

• SOLIDWORKS Xpress Tools Product Codes
• DFMXpress. Have you heard of it?
• SOLIDWORKS Free Xpress Utilities-Part 2-DFMXpress

I hope you take a look at this free tool before you machine your next part.

Bryan Pawlak
Sr. Application Engineer
www.cati.com