Viability of Screw UDF based on an Axis and a Face?

[J_E_Hyde]

I am developing a UDF for screw threads and ports and need some support understanding whether a certain implementation is possible and how to manage references to make it happen. 

Insofar, I have defined UDFs with a coordinate system that every other feature ultimately points to and placed these UDFs using that coordinate system and one placed in the model, or the on-surface coordinate system option. My understanding is that the basest feature(s) appearing in any UDF will be what all the other features ultimately reference. 

Ultimately, we would like these UDFs to be placed with reference to an axis the screw goes along and the face the screw extends from. However, I'm struggling to figure out if it's possible to manage references in such a way that those are the reference prompts. I have been experimenting for a while and can't arrange datums in a way that accomplishes this. 

More broadly, I've been having some trouble defining UDFs to point to anything BUT a coordinate system, so any general advice or perhaps learning material/coursework you could point me to would be great, the docs are a little hard to understand around this point. When I've previously made UDFs based on planes that were based ultimately on a coordinate system, the coordinate system was still pulled in as a feature.  Thank you!

EDIT: I have gotten something together that references a surface, a profile datum plane, and an axis, but I'm still wondering if there's some way the profile datum plane can be defined implicitly so we only select two things.

[Tdaugherty]

Have you ever taken a look at IFX in Creo? Based on this post and a previous post of yours, it seems like it would be a worthwhile investigation. It does a lot of what you're trying to recreate is included in the base Creo license. 

https://support.ptc.com/help/creo/creo_pma/r11.0/usascii/index.html#page/assembly/intelligent_fastener/About_Working_with_Intelligent_Fastener.html 

[J_E_Hyde]

To my understanding, the intelligent fasteners extension is for assembling fasteners to surfaces. We are looking to make fasteners a part of an existing body (i.e. to put a screw threaded post on any arbitrary object so long as we have an axis and a surface to reference)

[Tdaugherty]

IFX allows you to assemble fasteners in assembly mode with the reference selections that you're asking about. A placement axis and a surface is required to place the fastener. IFX will place the fastener and then create the hole geometry in both the connected parts. The hole features at the part level are driven by hole tables so they will have hole notes. If you change the fastener, the holes update and so do the notes. The end result is two clean parts and a logical assembly. You don't need to exclude your fastener geometry when you want to manufacture your parts.

[anursingh]

Hi @J_E_Hyde,

I wanted to see if you got the help you needed.

If so, please mark the appropriate reply as the Accepted Solution. It will help other members who may have the same question.
Of course, if you have more to share on your issue, please pursue the conversation. 

Thanks,
Anurag