Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&amp;T) is an essential component in mechanical design, manufacturing, quality inspection and cost control. A datum-based GD&amp;T model and a computer algorithm have been built to standardize and computerize the GD&amp;T procedure. A VBA (Visual Basic Application) tool has also been developed to implement the algorithm and semi-automated the GD&amp;T design. These research achievements have helped the authors form and adopt a new approach in designing GD&amp;T since 2018. The result is promising. The quality of the GD&amp;T designs of the designers has been much improved. In this paper, the authors will introduce this new design approach and show the design outcomes achieved through it. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&amp;T) is a quality control approach that uses a symbolic language to allow design engineers, manufacturers, and quality inspectors to specify allowable dimensions and tolerances of parts and assemblies in an efficient and effective manner (Hewerdine, Leake, and Brent 2011). Even though GD&amp;T is a critical specification process for part design, fabrication, product interchangeability and cost control, it is a tedious and challenging process as well (Sun and Gao 2018). Due to its complexity and breadth of information and designers' lack of prior experience in manufacturing practices, GD&amp;T specifications can be difficult for the designers to understand (Sun and Gao, 2018; Rios, 2018).Industry and academia have been advocating to integrate GD&amp;T into engineering programs (Branoff, 2018). Industry Advisory Board urges the university to provide the students with more exposures to GD&amp;T. ABET (Engineering Technology Accreditation Commission) mandates that GD&amp;T be taught and assessed by all mechanical engineering technology programs (ABET, 2020). More publications on introducing GD&amp;T to engineering education have appeared in the public domain (Branoff, 2018). &nbsp;Research has been undertaken to standardize the GD&amp;T process. A datum-based model and a computer algorithm were built and a VBA tool to implement the model was developed by the authors (Sun and Gao, 2018 and 2020). The model can ensure that GD&amp;T specifications to be added onto the part completely and systematically. It reduces the complexity of the GD&amp;T process while guaranteeing the quality of the work. These research achievements have been implemented to the training of Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing, which is for the students whose major are mechanical engineering and manufacturing engineering. A new way of designing GD&amp;T is replacing the traditional approach. The result&nbsp; is promising. In the following sections, the datum-based model and its implementation algorithm will be briefly reviewed, then the details of how to implement them in design will be described.

A New Approach to Design Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/IMECE2021/volume/85543

ASME 2021 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE2021)

Supporting the need among researchers worldwide for additional online and multimedia content, ASME now offers the ASME Conference Video Collection. This platform will collect and provide long-term access to conference presentation videos, encompassing all technology areas within ASME's technical conference and events program. About 30,000-40,000 engineers across all mechanical engineering and related disciplines participate in ASME conferences each year. This includes authors of approximately 6,000 to 8,000 technical papers published by ASME, the majority of whom also submit video presentations for our virtual conferences. The video collection will be available as an add-on to existing product packages or as a separate subscription.