MITCalc - Tolerance Analysis

MITCalc - Tolerance analysis is a handy tool that runs right in Excel, letting you do tolerance analysis for linear, 2D, and 3D chains. It comes with some tables that you fill out to get your results, which also includes a graph. Pretty cool, right?

Getting Started with MITCalc

Before you grab this app, just a heads up: you need Microsoft Excel because it won’t work without it. This version supports Excel versions from 2007 up to 2016. But here’s the catch—it doesn’t pop up like other add-ins. Instead, find its shortcut in your Start Menu and launch it from there.

Inputting Your Data

Once you're in the app, the first thing you'll want to do is edit some project details like the author name, date, project number, file name, and project name. After that, head over to the input section where you can start typing in definitions for both input and resulting dimensions.

Your Inputs Explained

For inputs, you'll fill out component names and angles along with sizes like nominal size, tolerances (min and max), and mean values. For your results section, set the component name along with required limit sizes (lower and upper). You can even choose between the "Worst case" or "Monte Carlo" method if you're feeling adventurous!

Analyzing Your Results

The output gives more than just a summary—it shows a table of resulting dimensions along with detailed descriptions including those required limit sizes and a nifty graph too. Plus, you can switch between different sheets to see tables or change options like UI language. Want to check out table data or dictionary terms? It's all there!

A Note on Performance

I should mention that during our tests on Windows 10 with Excel 2016, MITCalc - Tolerance analysis was a bit laggy. The response time wasn't what we hoped for. But despite that hiccup, it still has some great features for anyone looking to run tolerance analysis tests.