10 Best GD&T Training Courses Online 2021: Reviews and Pricing
GD&T is an extremely useful system that helps engineers and manufacturers effectively communicate product tolerances. To make the best use of this language, both designer and engineer must have mastery of it completely, from knowing the actual terms to using it in real-world engineering drawings. There are several online GD&T training courses on offer, which aim to teach individuals these skills (and more).
In this article, we’ll go over the top 10 GD&T training programs for practical engineering communication knowledge.
Let’s get started.
1. Udemy — Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T): Basics
Price: $64.99
Duration: 7 hours
Level: Beginners
This course is formulated for beginners starting out as design engineers or aspiring mechanical engineers who wish to learn more about GD&T.
This course provides a strong foundation of basic and complex GD&T concepts, along with the importance of engineering drawings. The course also models a comparison between traditional methods of tolerancing against GD&T.
Symbol categories including Form, Orientation, Location, Runout, and Profile are all thoroughly explained as well, along with their inspection methods.
This course has a total of 14 sections, at the end of which is a quiz with practice exercises that you can use to test your progress and newly learned skills.
While the course is priced at $64.99, Udemy often offers impressive discounts to many of their programs — as of this moment, this course is being offered for $17.99.
This course is a bestseller on the Udemy website.
2. Udemy — Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T): Advanced
Price: $84.99
Duration: 3.5 hours
Level: Advanced
Udemy offers an additional GD&T training course more suited for individuals who have prior knowledge and are more experienced in the field. Individuals taking up this course are required to have a good understanding of the GD&T basics.
The advanced course navigates deeper into the concepts, interpretations, and theory of GD&T. It goes into teaching concepts not limited geometric tolerances, datum reference frames, position control, and tolerance zones.
Like the beginner, this course is also currently offered at a massive discount, and is a bestseller on the Udemy website. It also has 14 sections and quizzes, totalling up to 3.5 hours of lectures.
Like many courses offered by Udemy, individuals are provided with a certificate upon completion, and have lifetime access to the resources present in this training program.
3. GD&T Basics — GD&T Training
Price: $199 — $499
Duration: Variable
Level: Variable
GD&T Basics offers a range of online courses that cater to a range of individuals involved in the manufacturing process, including machinists, design engineers, new hires, managers, and also sales managers.
The site prides itself for offering training programs that help individuals make better GD&T decisions, enable companies to have more efficient and clear communication, and the incorporation of real-world application.
GD&T Basics embodies the feature of versatility. This is apparent in the custom training option the courses offer (online, self-paced, webinar-based, or via public seminars). You can train individually, in a team, or as an academic program (for professors).
With all these options, the pricing and duration is dependent on the package you have selected for yourself. However, the price range lies approximately between $199 and $499. The website offers discounts occasionally.
Individuals have 180-day access to the resources this course offers, a student Q&A forum, complete instructor support via email, as well as a certificate of completion..
4. SAE International — GD&T Fundamentals
Price: $349
Duration: 24 hours
Level: Beginners
SAE International has an elaborate range of GD&T training programs. All these training courses are based on ASME Y14 and ISO standards.
This on-demand virtual course runs through the basic concepts, like GD&T symbols, terms, material modifiers (like RFS and MMC), as well as geometric tolerancing training according to the ASME Y14.25–2009 Standard.
This course teaches concepts like the importance of standard engineering drawings, how to interpret dimensioning symbols, describing the datum system, and interpret applications of datum targets, size datum features (RMB and MMB).
While this is a beginners course, it has a prerequisite of 2.4 CEUs (continuing education units — 10 hours make up 1 CEU). Individuals have access to resources for 90 days, and also have an instructor follow up on their queries.
SAE International has also published the 2018 GD&T Pocket Guide, an incredibly useful resource for anyone looking to learn GD&T.
5. Applied Geometrics Inc — GD&T Training
Price: $295 — $345
Duration: 24 hours
Level: Variable
Applied Geometrics offers several GD&T training programs. These vary from beginner-friendly levels, to those more suited for experienced professionals.
These courses are based on ISO and ASME Y14.5 standards. ASME standards are very respected, as an ASME certification gives individuals the title of a Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing Professional (GDTP).
These courses are live webinars, taught by AGI’s president, Mark Foster, who holds over 30 years of experience in GD&T.
People who sign up for these courses have a year-long license to access their classes anytime they want. A certificate of completion is also awarded to students that pass (80%) all 15 course quizzes present at the end of each chapter.
The fees for the fundamental courses stands at $295, while that of the Advanced courses stand at $345.
6. GeoTol — GD&T Fundamentals Program
Price: $299
Duration: 40 hours
Level: Beginner
GeoTol has been a worldwide provider of GD&T training since 1983. Its website is an excellent reserve of resources, courses, and aid concerning anything GD&T. The site offers training programs based on ASME Y14.5–2009 and ISO-Geometrical Product Specifications (GPS).
The Fundamental Program provides individuals with an elaborate understanding on the fundamentals of GD&T concepts and practices, while also delving into the slightly more advanced, tricky areas of tolerance training.
According to the site, the program has been modified and updated over the past 30 years to the latest standards, and has everything a person wanting to work in engineering or manufacturing should know.
The 12-month access gives individuals the luxury of going back to the course material whenever the need arises.
7. GeoTol — GD&T Advanced Program: Applications and Stacks
Price: $299
Duration: 10 hours (lecture), 20 hours (exercises)
Level: Advanced
The Advanced GD&T Program offered by GeoTol lays emphasis on the application of theory, and is ideal for engineers involved in tolerance analysis and drawing review. The Fundamental GD&T course is a prerequisite for this program.
This course contains 17 units. 10 hours of the program constitute the lecture, while the student exercises take up the remaining 20 hours of this course.
The course has two sections. The first, Tolerance Stacks, aims to teach students of the basic principles of tolerance stacks, stack procedures, and orientation tolerance stacks.
The subsequent section is geared more toward design applications. It starts with a basic overview of geometric tolerancing, followed by some case study examples which get more complex as you advance through the course.
8. Javelin Tech — GD&T Training
Price: Based on personal requirements
Duration: 4 hours/day for 3 days (online)
Level: Beginner
Javelin provides a multitude of courses of GD&T training that help individuals involved in the manufacturing process (designers, engineers, and managers) better understand and create GD&T drawings.
Their GD&T Fundamentals Course and Advanced Course are both based on the ASME Y14.5–2018 standard. The Fundamentals Course covers the basics, while the latter dives deeper into the complexities of GD&T.
The site also has a course-series named SOLIDWORKS, which teaches individuals how to present information and how to inspect documents — this is related to the product manufacturing process.
Students can choose to study in a typical classroom study as a group, a live class conducted online, or at their place of work with their team.
9. IGetIt — GD&T Online Training
Price: $499
Duration: 3–14 hours
Level: Beginner — Advanced
iGetIt is a site that houses a large reserve of GD&T training courses. The site offers five different courses, ranging from the absolute basics, to expert knowledge held by GD&T professionals.
The site has three courses on the Fundamentals of GD&T. Each course is based on the ASME Y14.5 standard, ranging from ASME Y14.5M-1994 to ASME Y14.5–2018.
Course durations vary, the shortest being 3 hours and the longest being 14 hours. The courses on this site are not priced individually. Users interested in studying any one course are required to register and pay the subscription fee — $499.
10. QTraining — GD&T Fundamentals
Price: $295
Duration: 20–24 hours
Level: Beginner/Intermediate
The GD&T Fundamentals course offered by QTraining is a self-paced, online training program for those who hold little or moderate experience in GD&T.
This course aims to teach students GD&T properly, to fully comprehend, interpret, and analyse it, while building confidence when dealing with its concepts, symbols, and language.
Despite being a Fundamentals course, it requires its students to have a basic understanding of technical drawings and of industrial blueprints.
The course consists of 8 units. Completing all units will entitle students to a certificate of completion, along with some CEUs.
Closing Remarks
And that concludes our list of the 10 best GD&T online training programs as of 2021. The following websites have something to offer everyone, whether you are simply starting out, or are looking to better your skills in this domain.
