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Standard Content: Inserting countersunk bolts or screws (multiple)
martin_kopplow
Member Posts: 1,263 PRO
I have a long standing issue with inserting countersunk screws. It never seems to work like I expect, even though I went through the help files and tutorial time and again. It drives me nuts. Maybe I am just too dumb to use it, maybe it is too complcated to understand, but maybe it is not explained right or straight out buggy. Please help me to find out.
- When inserting a single countersunk screw, OS offers me at least three insertion points (implicit MCs) on the model: Center of top cone circle, center of bottom cone circle, tip of cone (and sometimes center of bottom hole circle). The only point that makes sense is the cone tip point. That should be default. The other points should oly appear on holding down the Shift Key.
- All of the points/MCs offered have two possible directions. In many cases, if not most, the first direction the tool snaps to is the wrong one.
- All the above only applies for insertion of a single screw, not for multiple screws. After selecting faces with multiple holes in them, the selection of MCs is not diplayed.
- When inserting multiple countersunk screws into multiple countersunk holes created with hole features, I would expect the screws to just magically drop into position, since there is but ONE possible target position, and that is with the screw cone snugly in the hole cone, right?
- OS drops them on some other point, though, and at that often reversed, with the screw head inside the material and the threaded part sticking out. No way to change direction (excepte post-editing one by one).
I can find no explanation.
Here's an unedited quick and dirty video I just recorded, showing part of the issue.
Can someone please make a video of how it is working right? If not, could development look into it and find out why it is not working?
Comments
Yep, selecting the cone point is more awkward than it should be. It should be more automatic. Shift is essential. In your video you never highlight the cone. The 3 points you're cycling through are the top, middle and bottom of the cylinder - useless for countersunk screws. The countersink cone will show 4 potential mate points. You want the lowest one. Then of course you'll want to use replicate after that to add to a bunch of location.
Simon Gatrall | Product Development, Engineering, Design, Onshape | Ex- IDEO, PCH, Unagi, Carbon | LinkedIn
Hi @S1mon , thank you. The video is only one example. The cone does not appear to highlight, at least not with the options I used. If I only want to place one screw, it works, but not If I start out with say a face with several holes. Onshape has the ability to place screws in all holes in a selected face, as well as in all preselected holes, only it fails utterly with countersunk ones.
Using replicate is the smart solution, though this will populate all the holes it can find with the same screw lenght, and I want these only in a selection of holes, longer ones in the others. It would appear useful, if a pre-selection could be made, and Onshape would then place the same screw in all preselected holes.
For now, I used the populate option and edited the unwanted screws later, to get on with the job. Still, I have the impression, that inserting countersunk screws is less than optimized.
I find replicate more convenient than populate. You can do it by faces/edges. As far as I can tell, Populate is one time, Replicate is editable, and semi-intelligent.
100% it's less than optimal.
Simon Gatrall | Product Development, Engineering, Design, Onshape | Ex- IDEO, PCH, Unagi, Carbon | LinkedIn