GD&T symbols reference

PowerInspect uses the following GD&T symbols:

Diameter — Describes cylindrical features and tolerance zones. This symbol precedes the feature size or the tolerance.

Maximum Material Condition (MMC) or Maximum Material Boundary (MMB) — Specifies the maximum condition of the actual mating size of the feature.

Least Material Condition (LMC) or Least Material Boundary (LMB) — Specifies the minimum condition of the actual mating size of the feature.

Unequally Disposed Profile Modifier — The tolerance zone of a GD&T Surface Profile or GD&T Line Profile item is unequally distributed about the true surface of the feature. The value shown before the symbol is the total tolerance-zone width; the value after the symbol is the maximum positive tolerance.

Perpendicularity — A feature's centre plane, axis or surface is 90 degrees to a datum plane or axis.

Parallelism — A surface or centre plane is equidistant from all points on a datum plane.

Angularity — A surface, centre plane, or axis is at a specified angle (other than 90 degrees) from a datum plane or axis.

Surface Profile — A method of specifying a three-dimensional control along the entire surface to be controlled.

Line Profile — A method of specifying a two-dimensional control for a line along the true profile of a surface.

True Position — A positional tolerance that defines a zone in which features are allowed to vary from true (theoretically exact) position.

Concentricity — Concentricity is where the median point of all diametrically opposed items of a figure of revolution are congruent with the axis (or centre point) of a datum feature.

Circular Runout — A composite control (affecting form and location) of permissible error in the selected part surface during a complete revolution of the part around a datum axis. The runout tolerance provides a zone between two concentric circles.

Total Runout — A composite control (affecting the form and location) of permissible error in the selected part surface during a complete revolution of the part around a datum axis. The runout tolerance provides a zone between two concentric cylinders.

Symmetry — A feature or part has the same profile on both sides of the centre plane of a datum feature.

Datum Feature — A datum is a surface, axis or plane (either real or projected) from which the position of a feature is defined or measured.

Datum features are identified by a letter in a frame, linked by a leader line that ends in a solid triangle. When the datum is a GD&T Datum item, the background is white; when the datum is a feature, the background is shaded.

You can also measure the linear dimension between two features. This is not a true GD&T measure, but you can use it to find the relative positions of features.