Design Guidance Enhancements

aP Pro 2026 R1 SP1 and Stock Machining process model version CMV 230 complete the guidance type classification for alternative stock selection rules in the Stock Machining process group. This resolves the known limitation, noted in the aP Pro 2026 R1 Release Notes, where alternative stock selection issues appeared as Unclassified in the Design Guidance panel.

All five alternative stock availability rules are now correctly classified as Cost Driver issues:

• Alternative Available Plate Stock

• Alternative Available Rectangular Bar Stock

• Alternative Available Round Bar Stock

• Alternative Available Round Tube Stock

• Alternative Available Square Bar Stock

With this update, these issues display correctly as Cost Drivers in various views, consistent with the behavior of equivalent rules in other process groups, including in the following views:

• Design Guidance tab

• Design Guidance section of the Part Details tab

• Part Design Guidance Spreadsheet Report

• Design Guidance Issues tab in aP Design

Note: The manufacturabilitySeverity table intentionally was not added to the baseline Stock Machining process model at this time, as all out-of-the-box rules are classified as cost drivers only and do not require severity thresholds. If your company wishes to configure additional manufacturability rules and assign severity levels, simply create a table with this name and follow the pattern used in other process groups. See Design Guidance Configuration in the aPriori Cost Model Guide.

Bar & Tube Fabrication Design Guidance

aP Pro 2026 R1 SP1 and Bar & Tube Fab process model version CMV 280 introduce prioritized design guidance for the Bar & Tube Fab process group. With this release, design issues are now classified as Critical, Major, or Minor, enabling you to quickly identify the most important manufacturability concerns for bent and formed tube and bar parts. Severity thresholds can be customized within the Digital Factory to reflect your organization’s manufacturing standards.

The following categories of Bar & Tube rules now provide prioritized design guidance:

• Bending Constraints: the following rules are now severity-classified:

  • Insufficient Centerline Radius

  • Insufficient Bend to Bend Distance

  • Tube Bending Difficulty Factor

• Elongation Limits: Maximum Allowable Feature Elongation (bends) and Maximum Allowable Form Expansion Elongation rules are severity-classified under the issue name Excessive Feature Elongation.

• Tolerances: All tolerance rules are now classified with severity levels, consistent with the approach used in other process groups.

• Tooling Cost: the The Excessive Unique Bend Radii rule is categorized as Cost Driver guidance type, ensuring it is correctly displayed in the following:

  • Design Guidance tab

  • Design Guidance section of the Part Details tab

  • Part Design Guidance Spreadsheet Report

  • Design Guidance Issues tab in aP Design

In addition, the adviceRules lookup table was added to the Bar & Tube Fab process model. This allows Digital Factory administrators to enable or disable individual advice rules to align design feedback with their manufacturing standards (see Enable and Disable Design Guidance Rules in the aPriori Cost Model Guide).

Casting - Sand Design Guidance

aP Pro 2026 R1 SP1 and Casting - Sand process model version CMV 230 introduce prioritized design guidance for the Casting - Sand process group. Design issues now are classified as Critical, Major, or Minor, enabling engineers to quickly identify the most significant manufacturability concerns for sand cast parts. Threshold values can be customized in the Digital Factory to reflect your organization’s casting standards.

This enhancement extends the Critical, Major, and Minor severity framework first introduced in aP Pro 2025 R1 SP3 and brings the number of process groups providing prioritized guidance to eight: Forging, Machining, 2-Model Machining, Stock Machining, Plastic Molding, Sheet Metal, Bar & Tube Fab and Casting - Sand.

The following categories of Casting- Sand 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 this table 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 in the aPriori Cost Model Guide for more information. The All Thickness Recommendations popup in the Design Guidance tab was updated to pull values from this table where appropriate.

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.