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13-Aquamarine
June 21, 2022
Question

Fastener library - best ways to define material?

  • June 21, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 938 views

Looking through a number of fastener libraries we have access to, I'm noticing that they handle material assignment differently. 

  • No actual material assigned, just a density assigned to the generic
  • Multiple materials assigned, but instead of adding the material to the family table they added the density. Which seems odd to me.
  • The default load point PTC fastener lib has neither density or material assigned. 

So what would you do if you were designing a fastener library from scratch?

 

  • Would you assign multiple materials, and then add the material to the family table so it can be selected?
  • I suppose you could have a nested family table for a screw type, say socket head cap screw, then ask the user to pick the material next.
  • Or you could put the material choice last after thread diameter & length and not nest the family table.

Looking for suggestions and a discussion to guide my thinking on what to do with our current libraries. 

 

1 reply

23-Emerald III
June 21, 2022

I put my fasteners in files by material. I have a cap head screw file for 316SS, one for 18-8PH and one for A534 steel.

My thinking was that once a material was selected for the application, only a change in length and in some rare situations diameter would be needed. Seldom would a different material be needed for an application.