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Casting - Sand

Geometry or Cost Engine Changes that Could Impact Configured Digital Factories

The following changes might impact costing, even for Digital Factories that use earlier cost model versions.

  • Material Specified in Bulk Costing & Analysis Dialog Now Applied During GCD Extraction (can impact routings, times, and costs): This release resolves an issue where the material specified in the Bulk Costing & Analysis dialog was not correctly applied during GCD extraction, causing material-dependent GCDs to be computed incorrectly.

    As a result of this change, the manufacturability assessment for holes (cast, fully machined, or partially machined) may change in bulk costing results, compared to the previous release. The manufacturability assessment can affect routings, times, and costs.

    Note:

    Bulk Costing via spreadsheet input was not affected by this issue, and its results will not change compared to the previous release.

Bug Fixes or Small Improvements to Prior Cost Model Versions

The following changes might impact costing for Digital Factories that use earlier cost model versions.

  • NO IMPACT

Cost Model Changes that Do Not Affect Configured Digital Factories

The following changes do not affect costings with Digital Factories that use earlier cost model versions. The changes are available only in the latest cost model version (CMV230).

  • Design Guidance and Manufacturability Assessment (impacts design guidance): This release introduces prioritized design guidance. Manufacturability issues now are classified as Critical, Major, or Minor. The guidance issued will change compared to the previous release.

    The following categories of rules now provide prioritized design guidance:

    • Draw Direction and Geometry Accessibility (issues that prevent casting from the primary draw direction):
      • Draw Direction Inaccessibility
      • Undercut Geometry
      • Closed Void
    • Wall and Section Thickness:
      • Thin Section (Minimum Wall Thickness)
      • Thick Section (Maximum Wall Thickness)
    • Hole and Edge Geometry (geometry that may be difficult or impossible to cast):
      • Insufficient Hole Diameter
      • Thin Wall Around Hole
      • Insufficient External Edge Radius
      • Insufficient Internal Edge Radius
    • Insufficient Draft Angle (distinguishing between conditions that prevent casting and those that increase tooling cost)
    • Tolerances: Hole tolerance and surface tolerance rules are classified with severity levels, consistent with the approach used in Machining and other process groups.
    • Additional rules: Threaded feature rules are also severity-classified in this release.
    • High Hole Length-to-Diameter Ratios: Maximum Hole Depth and Blind Hole L/D Ratio rules have been combined to provide Length to Diameter Ratio violations called High Through Hole Length To Diameter Ratio and High Blind Hole Length To Diameter Ratio. Threshold values for both hole types also were updated.

    The manufacturabilitySeverity lookup table was added to the Casting - Sand process model. This table stores severity thresholds for all classified rules and enables Digital Factory administrators to customize values

    Minimum hole diameter and minimum wall thickness thresholds defined in manufacturabilitySeverity are now also used during geometry extraction to determine whether holes are castable or require machining, ensuring alignment between geometry determination and design guidance. See Sand Casting Manufacturability for more information.

    Note:

    Geometry extraction for Casting – Sand now uses Insufficient Hole Diameter and Thin Section threshold values from the manufacturabilitySeverity table. (The lookup tables tblMinHoleDiameter and tblWallThickness have been deprecated.) If threshold values in manufacturabilitySeverity are modified by a Digital Factory administrator after geometry has been extracted, the geometry data and design guidance thresholds may become out of sync. A warning is displayed in such cases to prompt geometry re-extraction. Re-extracting geometry will update the geometry to reflect the new thresholds.