Overview of Autodesk Inventor 3D annotations

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This course will cover how to use Autodesk Inventor Professional to annotate and share your 3D models.

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We'll start with an overview of the Autodesk Inventor 3D annotations environment and how to use it properly to define,

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as well as tolerance your models before exporting them to share with others.

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The Autodesk Inventor "Annotate" tab gives users the ability to add Dimensions,

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Tolerances and Notes onto a three-dimensional model instead of a two-dimensional drawing.

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This is typically easier to interpret and allows users to export this data inside of a three-dimensional PDF,

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or a STEP 242 file for CNC and CMM machine integration.

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The Inventor annotation environment also includes what's called the Tolerance Advisor which will provide messages,

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warnings and other feedback to help users properly constrain orient and tolerance a model prior to sending it for manufacturing.

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So this slide shows the general workflow that will be used when creating 3D annotations with Autodesk Inventor.

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So once you've activated the "Annotation" tab,

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you can then add dimensions manually or you can extract them from the 3D CAD model automatically.

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Once the dimensions have been added,

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you can then include specific hole and thread notes to define hole-thread sizing, as well as depth and counter bore options.

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You can also edit these notes to include a size tolerance,

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that can be used in combination with your geometric dimensioning and tolerancing later.

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Next, you'll typically add your Notes.

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These can just be general notes or overall profile notes.

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This will replace the typical notes block or title block you would see on a two-dimensional drawing.

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However, it will be shown at all times on the 3D graphics window when viewing the CAD model,

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and these notes will also be included with the 3D PDF if you choose to export it that way.

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Next, you'll jump into creating Tolerance Features.

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This is where you will begin to define your datums -- datum A, B, C, etcetera,

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and then create your Datum Reference Frame from that.

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Once that's been established, you can add additional tolerance features referencing that datum reference frame,

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and then you can continue to validate your GD&T using the Tolerance Advisor.

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Once you have satisfied all the conditions and recommendations of the Tolerance Advisor,

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you can then export your model as a 3D PDF or STEP file to share with others and to produce your manufacturing file.

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So in the annotation environment,

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you'll notice there's going to be two folders that are created as you add Dimensions,

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Notes and Tolerance Features.

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The first folder is your Annotations folder.

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This will contain all of your dimensions as well as your hole notes, surface texture call outs and weld symbols.

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You can right-click and edit any of these from the browser.

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You can also select them in the browser to highlight them in the graphics window to confirm which one is which.

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The other folder that's created is going to be your "Tolerance Features" folder.

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This will include all of your datum reference frames, Tolerance Features and Notes included with the Tolerances.

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So take a look at the first few steps in that workflow.

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Anything you do to add Dimensions, Notes or general notes as well as Surface Texture call outs,

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all of those items will be added to the "Annotations" folder and will show up there in the browser.

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That folder will not be created until you add your first Dimension or Note.

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And then you can find those items there later as you progress.

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Anything that's created as a Tolerance Feature,

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a datum feature or a datum reference frame will be added to the "Tolerance Features" folder in the browser,

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and it can be edited and accessed from that area at any point in time.

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So if you select dimension from the "Annotate" tab, that will activate the Dimension options.

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Once you've selected a couple of faces, it will give you a preview of what that dimension will look like.

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Now, the biggest difference between this and a sketch environment or a 2D drawing environment,

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is that you have to choose a plane on which this annotation will lie and be visible in the 3D environment.

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So you can toggle which plane the dimension will show up on, whether that's an XY or XZ plane.

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Using the "Spacebar," you can toggle between the two.

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If you hold the "Shift" button, you can then select a new face reference and your dimension will be placed on that plane.

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Once the dimension is created, you can then edit the format,

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you can edit how it is toleranced and what the size is going to be,

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whether that's a symmetric plus/minus tolerance, or if you set a firm max/min limit.

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Once you've defined all of that, you can then reference these dimensions later when you're adding in tolerance features.

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But this will be the first step in any 3D annotation.

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Hole and Thread Notes can also be added in the 3D annotation environment.

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This is extremely helpful when you have something like a counter sync, counter bore,

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or maybe threaded hole that you created in the part file.

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It can bring in some of that information and data automatically, so that you do not have to type all that in and add those symbols.

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Now, those symbols as well as the Precision and Tolerance can be adjusted Manually once that hole note has been created.

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You can also type in custom notes and add an additional symbols where they are needed.

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The check boxes will give you the ability to use Global Precision for your number of decimal places,

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as well as whether or not to use the Part Tolerance for your Tolerance values.

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The dropdown menu where you see "Default" allows you to change to a symmetric or a min/max type of size tolerance,

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that can then be adjusted when you get to add a datum feature as well.

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Your General Notes are going to replace your typical note block you would see on a two-dimensional drawing.

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And this can also be used to automatically place your profile tolerances.

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If you are applying a Global Profile Tolerance, you can do that here as well.

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If you have a specific surface or edge on the model you want to call out, you may consider using leader text.

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This gives you a little bit more control over call outs and notes on your three-dimensional model.

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Again, this will all be included in the three-dimensional PDF as well.

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The tolerance feature in the annotate environment is going to give you the ability to add in your datums as well as your tolerance features.

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It is automatically going to choose a tolerance feature based off of your selection.

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So for instance, if you choose a flat surface, it may choose flatness or profile.

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Whereas if you choose a cylindrical hole feature,

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it's likely to choose something like perpendicularity, cylindricity or maybe hole position.

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So we'll intelligently try to recognize what is needed.

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Now, the specific tolerance type and whether or not it's a datum identifier can be changed and manually updated.

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However, some of the guess work is eliminated when you're using a smart tool like this.

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If at any point, you need to add additional segments to the feature control frame, you can do that using "Add Segment,"

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and you can then update your datum reference frame once enough datums have been created and use that to properly

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constrain your model for inspection purposes.

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So once you've established a datum A, B and C,

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in your datum reference frame, you can choose which datums are primary, secondary and tertiary.

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This datum reference frame can then be used later when you are locating holes or adding in things like Profile Tolerances.

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You can also customize this as you go and the corresponding features will update automatically.

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All of this will be included in the STEP file and the 3D PDF as well when you go to export.

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After you create your first tolerance feature,

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the Tolerance Advisor will automatically be activated and show up as a separate tab in the browser.

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You can mostly ignore it until you've finished adding in your datums and features.

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But it's important to keep track of what some of these messages are and how you can fix them.

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If you right-click on any of the messages that come up and you select "More Information,"

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it'll actually open up that specific page in the Help manual,

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which typically will give you info on the message as well as a recommended solution to that problem.

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You can also activate the Face Status Coloring at the bottom of the Tolerance Feature browser.

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What this will do is it'll show you a legend and identify what surfaces are currently fully constrained,

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partially constrained or unconstrained by the Geometric Dimension and Tolerancing that you have put in place.

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The last step in the annotation process is typically going to be sharing your model-based definition file.

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So to do this, you can export as a three-dimensional PDF that can be viewed with Adobe Acrobat.

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This is really helpful when you are sharing with a vendor or a manufacturer, and they'd like to be able to rotate the model around,

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and view your Dimensions and Tolerances without needing a CAD software,

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or anything like that to actually view that data.

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The other way you can export your model is using a STEP format or a CAD format.

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If you are using a STEP file that you want to be read into your CMM software,

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make sure to choose STEP 242 format in the "Options" when you go to save the file to your computer drive.

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So I'll give you a quick overview of the annotate environment using this gear housing part file shown here.

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Within Autodesk Inventor, if I'm on the "3D Model" tab, I'll just switch over to the "Annotate" tab,

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and this is where you'll see your Geometric Tolerances as well as your General Annotations and Notes.

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The export options are shown over to the right.

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So if I were to start by just adding something like a simple dimension by selecting Dimension,

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once I select two faces, so I'll choose a face on one side and then another face on the opposing,

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you'll notice it automatically places this dimension and then it gives me a plane showing me,

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how this is going to be shown on the 3D model and what plane it will rest on.

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If I want to change this, I can just hit the "Spacebar" on my keyboard which will flip it to the next available plane.

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So for this specific dimension, I have two plane options, this XY plane and then this XZ plane.

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If you want it to lie on a specific face,

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you can also hold the "Shift" button and then select that face,

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and it will then place it on the plane that is corresponding to that selection.

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So now if I were to select with my left-click, it'll place that dimension,

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and then it'll open up the options here where I can choose things like Precision,

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Tolerances and how this is going to be formatted.

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So for instance, let's say instead of a "Default," it's actually going to have a specific "Symmetric" tolerance to it.

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I'll change to "Symmetric" and you'll then see up here where I have a plus or minus 00,

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I can double-click on that and I can change this to, for instance, 0.01, click the "Check Mark."

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And then now my dimensions has been added to my three-dimensional model.

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So let's say then I want to add in a hole note, I can simply go to the "Hole/Thread Note" option.

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Once I've selected that, notice I can't choose a flat surface,

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it will only let me choose a cylindrical face or edge. So if I choose this one here,

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it then gives me the same options as before where I can toggle what plane I want this to lie on.

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Once I've left-clicked to confirm, I can then once again change whether or not I want to use Global Precision, a Part Tolerance.

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I can doubleclick on the value if I'd like to change the formatting or the precision of that call out.

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If I click this little icon here where you see this "Edit Hole Note" button,

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what that'll do is then open up a window where I can add in additional text and symbols,

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things like counter sync, counter bore and diameter.

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So I'll select "OK" to confirm that.

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Click the "Check Mark" and now I have a Hole Note added in to this file.

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If the Hole Note is something that is threaded -- so for instance, this time I choose a threaded hole,

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what you'll notice about that is it pulls that information from the original CAD model.

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So it'll say the actual size of the thread being used for that hole feature.

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Now, if you have a note that is going to just be added as a Note Block, you can click on the "General Note" button and then type that in.

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So I might say break all sharp edges...

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Select "OK", and it'll be added into this corner.

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This will show up regardless of what view you're currently looking at.

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And you can also use this to add in general profile notes. So if I select that option from the panel,

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I can choose which quadrant I want it to be in. I'm going to choose the same exact one. It just adds it to the next line,

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and it'll then say the Profile Note and I can then adjust that Tolerance as well before clicking "OK."

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And now this will be my note block that'll show in all views.

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So now I'm ready to start adding in some Tolerance Features as well as a datum reference frame.

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Now, in order to do that, I can go ahead and select Tolerance Feature from the top panel,

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I can then choose this bottom face for instance and hit the "Check Mark."

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Now, based off of this selection, it knows it's a flat planar face and it assumes that I want a flatness tolerance on it.

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It also assumes that I'm going to be setting this as my datum A.

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So I'll click to confirm.

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I can then choose if I'd like to use this as a "Datum identifier" or not what the actual value for that datum will be.

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And when I'm ready to confirm, I can hit the "Check Mark" and that will be added into the 3D window.

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You'll notice the Tolerance Advisor shows up as soon as you add your first tolerance as well.

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Again, keep in mind that this will continue to update as you add additional Tolerance Features.

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So it is not a final list of messages.

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So I'll add one more Tolerance Feature here to this hole going through the middle of the housing,

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hit the "Check Mark." And once again, it identifies this as a hole feature.

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It also assumes I want perpendicularity to datum A and it also assumes that I want this to be my datum B.

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So I click to confirm.

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Once again, I can add additional segments, I can adjust whether or not I want it to be a "Datum identifier" or not,

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and what that value is going to be and hit the "Check Mark" to confirm.

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And now I am ready to save this and export as a PDF or a STEP file.

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So for this example, I will go ahead and select "CAD format."

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When I do that, I can choose where I would like to save this file and what the type is going to be,

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which in this case will be STEP format.

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And then there's this "Options" option right here.

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If I select that,

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I can then choose 242 which is your MBD format,

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which will be best if you are integrating with a CMM machine.

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So I'll select "OK."

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And then I can click "Save" to export this as a STEP file.