We design gages & fixtures for manufacturing turbine blades. The one thing that's always difficult with these is where do I clamp to hold the part the best. We are normally given 6 predefined datum points we have to locate the part on and trying to figure out where to clamp these is almost a guessing game. I have added 2 pics of an example of what I'm looking at. On the first pic (loc side) are the 6 predefined fixed locating points. On the clamp side pic the 3 red pins are spring loaded clamping pins to assist in keeping the part against the locators. These ones are usually in line with the locators but the pink torque screw at the top is the one that is a guessing game as far as position. Would simulation be able to determine where this clamp should best be placed or is there a better solution. We try to get a part to verify the position but this is not always the case. Any help or suggestions to a program that may be able to do this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.SolidworksGeneral
