Dimensioning the objects in technical drawings in the correct way is a very important thing. You need to apply all dimensioning according to the standards. If you dimension according to your style, other people that used to standards can not understand the way you show the important information. Here, we will briefly explain how to show slot dimensioning in technical drawing.
What is Slot?
Slots are the geometric features that we are using in different mechanical parts. They are sections to that we attach movable parts of the assemblies. And they provide horizontal or vertical movement to the part that we attached to them.
Slots are generally created with the milling operations. The vertical milling cutter comes to contact with the surface of the workpiece to create the slot geometry in general. So this dimensioning according to the standards is very important if you are dealing with different kinds of applications in general. The operator must be able to understand the general sizes of the slot that you are using in your design.
How to Make Slot Dimensioning?
It is very easy to show the dimensions of the slots. They have two half-round ends. The operator must understand the width and the length of the total slot. So the diameter information is automatically given with the width dimension of the slot dimensions.
- According to the standards you need to show the total length of the slot.
- After that, you need to total the height of the slot.
- You do not need to show the radius of the slot because the width information is enough.
- Specify the radius of the slot by using 2XR. This means this geometric feature has 2 pieces of radius features.
Where Do We Use Slots in Mechanical Design?
Maybe slots can be very basic shapes that you can see in different kinds of mechanical applications. Buy they provide very important duties for the mechanical assemblies.
- First of all, we can use the slots as adjustments in mechanical assemblies in general. Because you can easily create a mechanical system that can be adjusted to different sizes, holes, and clearances.
- To attach fasteners to the mechanical assemblies, you can use slots in general. The slots are very important systems that we need to use in general. You can attach different kinds of fasteners to these applications without any problem.
- To create motions, slots also can be very important. Attainment of additional applications on slots, you can create very good moving systems.
- Also in the clearance adjustment systems, slots are very useful.
Considerations in Slot Dimensioning and Design
There are different kinds of considerations that you need to make if you want to design a slot and make a good slot dimensioning on a technical drawing.
- The dimensions of the slots are very important. You need to provide enough clearance to the slot application that you are using. With these clearances, it will be very easy to detach or attach the mechanical system in general.
- Which material you are using? You need to depict the material of the slot application that you are using on your technical drawings in general.
- State the tolerances also. Which tolerances that you need to leave for the attachment of different kinds of devices and parts? These tolerances will define the working principle of the different kinds of mechanical applications.
- Make sure that the orientation of the slot is compatible with the other elements of the design.
How to Create a Slot in AutoCAD?
Also creating slots in different kinds of CAD programs is a very important thing to do. For example, the use of AutoCAD is very common in the industry in general. And you need to use this program to deal with the slots in general. Follow these steps if you want to create a slot in AutoCAD
- First of all, you need to choose or open the SLOT common. It is placed in the Draw menu. Or also, you can simply write SLOT and press enter to open this command.
- You need to specify the start point of the slot by pressing with your mouse. Or also, you need to specify the coordinates by entering the coordinates.
- Specify the endpoint of the slot as we explained above.
- And define the slot width which will be the diameter of the half circles of the two ends of the slots.
- Press enter to complete the slot creation in Autocad.
As you see above, slot dimensioning and creating in Autocad is very simple like above.
Slot Dimensioning in Inventor
Also, the use of the Inventor is very common in mechanical design and technical drawing creation. And you can follow these steps for slot dimensioning in Inventor;
- First of all, you need to open the assembly or drawing that has a slot inside it. And click on the “Annotation” tab in the ribbon menu.
- In this tab, you will see the “Dimension” option. Click on it.
- You need to choose the outer edges of the slot as we explained in the first section of the article. And the system will automatically dimension the slow without any problem.
- After that, you need to leave the dimension to the desired location on the text. And click to leave the dimension.
- Like this one, click on the “Dimension” tool again. And choose the width of the slot to dimension it. And place the dimension like above.
Slot dimensioning is very simple as you see above in Inventor also.
So, using the different kinds of computer programs will help you to slot dimensioıning and other technical drawing operations in a much more easy way. So, we recommend using these applications in all mechanical design systems.
Last Words on Slot Dimensioning
As you see above, dimensioning the slot geometries is very simple like above. If you have additional questions about the slot dimensioning, leave them below and we will answer them.
