MBE PMI Validation and Conformance Testing Project
PMI Verification Testing Results Browser
Before using the testing results browser below you should be familiar with the MBE PMI Validation and Conformance Testing Project and the verification testing reports.- Testing Implementations of Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing in CAD Software
- Guide to the CAD Models and Verification Testing Results
- Measuring the PMI Modeling Capability in CAD Systems: Report 1 - Combined Test Case Verification (Presentation slides)
- Measuring the PMI Modeling Capability in CAD Systems: Report 3 - Fully-Toleranced Test Case Verification (Presentation slides)
The browser lets you explore the distribution of 411 PMI errors (98 unique errors) that went into producing the high-level verification testing results documented in the reports. For example, you can find the CAD system with the most PMI errors related to datum targets (CAD C 2012) or which CAD system has the most PMI errors where a dimension has an extraneous space (CAD B) or which annotation type has the most graphic error types (datum features) or which FTC has the least semantic annotation error types (FTC 8).
Disclaimer
The verification testing results related to the test case PMI were generated based on the 2012 and 2015 versions of the CAD systems (CATIA, SolidWorks, Creo, NX). The results show that the FTC and thus the 2015 CAD systems have more PMI errors. This is because there are more PMI annotations in the FTC (2015 CAD systems) than in the CTC (2012 CAD systems) and that many of the PMI annotations in the FTC are more complex, and less likely to be fully supported, than in the CTC. The CTC and FTC were not developed to make a comparison between the different versions of the CAD systems. No conclusion can be made that one version (2012 or 2015) of a CAD system is better or worse than the other version. The PMI errors identified for the semantic and graphic representation of PMI in each CAD system may have been (and hopefully have been) resolved since the original testing took place.
Browser
The browser uses the open-source version of Keshif, a web-based data exploration environment for data analytics. There are six frames in the browser below:
- Test Case, Annotation Type, and PMI Annotation are defined in the test case browser.
- CAD System are the four CAD systems (CATIA, SolidWorks, Creo, NX) that were tested. The testing results only refer to the CAD systems as A, B, C, and D. The CTC are associated with the 2012 versions of the CAD systems and the FTC are associated with the 2015 versions of the CAD systems.
- PMI Errors are the 411 annotation errors (98 unique errors corresponding to the number of rows) for PMI representation and PMI presentation found in the CAD system verification testing. Specific examples of the
errors are found in the reports. The table is a key to the abbreviations.
DFS Datum feature symbol DRF Datum reference frame FCF Feature control frame DIM Dimension DTS Datum target symbol SG Supplemental geometry - Error Types classifies the PMI errors into three semantic annotation and six graphic annotation error categories. Specific examples of the error types are found in the reports.
Mousing over a text label (e.g. CAD B (2015) or FCF text is extraneous or Annotation layout) highlights the bar in orange and associated data in the other frames showing the relationships between the data. Clicking on the text label filters information in all frames by the selected value. Clicking on a selected value deselects it. After one text label has been selected, more can be selected by clicking 'Or' to the left of a label. Data can be filtered out by clicking 'Not' to the left of a label. PMI Errors and PMI Annotations can also be filtered with a Search string.