There are many instances in component designs where basic dimensions are declared indirectly for displacement or orientation with respect to the DRF (datum reference frame) specified for the geometric tolerance callout. For the sake of appearance, expedience, process reference, or congruity with mating component details the basic dimensions are specified anomalous to the geometric DRF’s that they are controlled from.
A simple circular pattern of features may be specified 5X with a basic diameter of xx.xxx and an angular displacement of 5/360 with one feature shown coincident with the centerlines… or displaced xx.xxx degrees from it. That specification would yield X and Y basic coordinates for measurement that are not directly specified.
On angled or compound gun-drilled passages in structures designers often detail the end-points with basics normal to the plan views where the passage intersects other features (spot faces, ODs, IDs, surfaces, etc.) rather than rotating and specifying the basics normal to the gun-drilled hole itself albeit for expedience sake. Inspectors must figure the basic displacements normal to the specified feature with respect to the DRF to measure the hole’s position deviation and then convert the axial displacements at each end of the hole where they would intersect the basic value of the intersected feature just so their “basic value displacements” match up with those specified by the designer. All of this is to satisfy an edict from an STA that the measurement results relate directly to the “ballooned” basic dimensions
![[mad] [mad] [mad]](/data/assets/smilies/mad.gif)
pet peeve
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. The same goes for the profile displacement of the spot face surface or counterbore depth itself! Lazy designers…just kidding.
There are so many other reasons why the basics are specified in ways other than the way they must be figured with respect to the specified DRFs (if there are position requirements to multiple DRFs to limit stack accumulation, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera) but they all describe the exact theoretical form, location and/or orientation relative to the basic contour and/or DRFs they are scrutinized to so they can be manipulated mathematically all day long to accomplish the scrutiny that one is interested in performing!
Paul