Besides bends, DigiFabster recognises the following features:
Notches;
Slots;
Pockets;
Holes;
For each found feature, it further recognises the following properties:
blind or through;
angle to vertical;
corner radius;
depth to diameter ratio.
Using this, a number of Design for Manufacturing (DfM) tests can be set up.
If the shop only uses lasers to produce features, blind or narrow features are impossible to produce, so the set of available features could look like this
Holes, only simple, only through, with a maximum ratio of 1. Like this:
Any hole not falling within these parameters will be flagged on the widget, like this:
That reaction can be made even more forceful by denying a quote on a part with such a feature:
When TBD mode is switched on, the widget will not only show a message under the offending feature but will also show "TBD" as a price and will not allow online ordering.
NB: Pockets can not be used in the same way, since they can have basically any width as long as the walls are vertical, the diameter-to-depth ratio is, in fact, unknown. So a good setup for pockets would be:
If a shop does have the (milling) tools to create e.g. deep slots or special hole forms, then these can be added to the list of features, with an additional price, in time or money. Like this deep slot:
If the shop has the tools to not only do special hole forms, but even provide taps, then it can offer a hole like this:
By offering two identical holes with different thread types, a choice now can be provided to the end user. He can either request the hole to be simply drilled, or have a tap cut in.
The choice will show up on the widget in the form of a dropdown, here:
