TAE is a 1D tolerance analysis tool integrated within Creo that lets the user define tolerance studies while continuing to work in their Creo session. It’s primary advantage over the new EZtol program is that it works directly with dimensions and associated tolerances in the Creo model files. This means as the tolerances are adjusted based on the analysis results they are automatically transferred back to the Creo model data.


EZtol is a standalone application that can open files from many different CAD packages. As such it doesn’t require the source CAD software to be running. It offers a different workflow for the definition of tolerance stackups similar to CETOL – namely feature-based definition instead of selecting dimensions in the loop. It handles more types of geometric tolerances, includes an RSS option for those more familiar with this form of statistical treatment, and alerts the user to many situations where a 1D treatment may not sufficient to fully understand the actual variation that can occur. While it doesn’t obtain dimension and tolerance information from the source files, nor can it update them, it does maintain the concept of part-level dimensioning schemes so that dimensions appearing in multiple stackup definitions are easily identifiable.