Autodesk Inventor Tolerances in Models

Tolerances are essential for making sure your parts fit and function once they’re manufactured, and Autodesk Inventor makes it easy to define them right in your model drawings. By setting tolerance values, choosing fit types, and controlling precision, you can clearly communicate manufacturing requirements and keep your digital prototype aligned with real-world production.

When you’re creating or editing a sketch dimension, click the small arrow next to the dimension input box and choose Tolerance to open the tolerance settings. This lets you apply limited, fits or deviation values directly whilst you’re sketching.

This lets your apply whatever tolerance you need to the nominal value you’re already entered. In this example, a DeViation tolerance of +0.05mm and -0.01mm was added to dimension d6, which was also renamed to Bearing_End_Dia directly in the dialog box.

In another example, I have changed the tolerance of a bush shaft hole to be H7 Limitts/Fits Tolerance.

This tolerance will subsequently be shown in my sketch.

You can also view tolerances within the Parameters manager.

In the parameters manager, we have a whole column dedicated to tolerances with a yellow symbol and the tolerance type before it. By default, this is a nominal the tolerances evaluated sizes are as below:

Nominal
Shows only the base (intended) dimension with no tolerance values displayed.

Upper
Displayed only the upper deviation from the nominal value. Example:
Nominal: 20mm
Upper: +0.05
Display: 20 +0.05

Lower
Displays only the lower deviation from the nominal value. Example:
Nominal: 20mm
Lower: -0.02
Display: 20 -0.02

Median
Shows the midpoint of the tolerance range instead of the nominal. Example:
Nominal: 20mm
Tolerance: +0.10 / -0.04
Median = 20 + (0.10 – 0.04) / 2 = 20.3mm

In the drawing environment, we can then bring forward our tolerances from our model by using the retrieve model annotations. In this way, the original designers design intent and tolerances can be directly brought forward to the drawing without any further communication and ensure that our prototype is within tolerance.