Welcome to the Onshape forum! Ask questions and join in the discussions about everything Onshape.
First time visiting? Here are some places to start:- Looking for a certain topic? Check out the categories filter or use Search (upper right).
- Need support? Ask a question to our Community Support category.
- Please submit support tickets for bugs but you can request improvements in the Product Feedback category.
- Be respectful, on topic and if you see a problem, Flag it.
If you would like to contact our Community Manager personally, feel free to send a private message or an email.
Options
How do I add threads to a hole.
matthew_pitera
Member, Developers Posts: 4 ✭
Hello,
I'm new to design/OnShape and am looking for some advice. I would like to add some threads for a M3 screw into my design but cannot figure out how to. I reached community project and have found a M3 nut but am having trouble reverse engineering it. Can anyone assist me with this?
I'm new to design/OnShape and am looking for some advice. I would like to add some threads for a M3 screw into my design but cannot figure out how to. I reached community project and have found a M3 nut but am having trouble reverse engineering it. Can anyone assist me with this?
Tagged:
1
Answers
This is a popular topic and often forms "one of the first things I must try in CAD".
In all honesty the initial thought you should ask yourself is "do I need to model this thread?"
This is because they are needy little sods from a performance point of view. They can be time consuming to model but more importantly they can contain more work for the CAD SW to perform every time it rebuilds than all of your other parts combined. (Just think how many faces you have if your assembly has 50 bolts in it, and 50 tapped holes for them to fit into.)
From an engineering point of view we want a drawing with a call out to the thread type, which the "hole feature" covers well. Then our CNC machine has a pilot hole only on the model, the last thing it wants is modeled threads.
If you really really need threads (say for a rendering of finished product, or for 3d printing) then a good tip is to build them but then suppress the feature when you're working on the rest of the model.
Even in 3D printing placing a captive metal nut in the model (and then pausing mid print to drop it in) is usually a better option.
Just my 2p's worth
Cheers,
Owen S.
HWM-Water Ltd
Owen S,
HWM-Water Ltd
No harm done.
Threads for aesthetics = NO
Functional threads for 3D Printing = ok, but then suppress them.
Learning how to make threads = Fun and learning - but please do not use them in any number in an assembly or in any Part Studio with any others parts.
This is not a limitation of Onshape, you could cut and paste this into the forum of ANY parametric Cad system.
Have fun and listen to Owen
Fun airplane or commuting airplane?
I'll have to think of more Philipisms to adopt....
Owen S.
HWM-Water Ltd
Few tips for getting deeper into Philipisms:
- Shorter answers, go straight to the point.
- Use funny image if possible, it's worth thousand words.
- Short lists are much more efficient than long paragraphs
- Always remember to encourage for cadding and having fun in the last line.
I still think that if cad can't handle threads, it's not users fault. Cad should have automated performance load recognizion and auto-simplify stuff that slows it down and calculate more details when zooming in / computer has time to perform. Similar to keyshot rendering, when you move model it's very crispy but when you let it stand for a moment it's like a photo.
But I do agree that no one should spend time modeling threads, they should be auto-modeled with hole tool for aesthetic purposes
ps. I just realized there could be a philip-bot integrated into Onshape UI to keep designers in right track
(and thinking about aesthetic thread representation
(type : +1 : but without the spaces)
Owen / Rami - what if we started using this?
I believe you meant to say:
PhD, Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University
I feel this should be included:-
@philip_thomas That's awesome, many up votes to you sir. Read it at 4 this morning and thought "how did he justify the text like that" followed by doh, less typing, yay.
@lemon1324
Interesting, what is that?
Owen S.
HWM-Water Ltd
It's funny you should say that. I proposed a help avatar (almost entirely unlike the Microsoft office paperclip) to be made up of a composite of the features of the OS employees. I can't image why but it didn't get taken up.
In other news I'm still not entirely convinced Ilya is real. I have a sneaking suspicion he's a genius level AI that escaped from a cold war supercomputer and has sought refuge in an Amazon server farm...
Hmm, might be time to get a carbon monoxide detector in this office.
Owen S.
HWM-Water Ltd
I am a real person -- I feel it with every byte of my body.
Now, print this and put it on top of your work papers to produce better material into forums
So:-
Monitor 1 = Partstudio
Monitor 2 = Assembly
Monitor 3 = Forum
Monitor 4 = Drawings Emoji List
Perfect, thanks
Owen S.
HWM-Water Ltd
Thanks to @lougallo pointing out we can reveal a facet count (control D) it's time to put some numbers to the theory.
This is a 25mm thick disk with twelve threaded holes. Threads are M12x1.5
Without threads = 8.2K Triangles:-
With threads = 942K Triangles:-
So I've made my model 113.6435 times more complicated by adding 12 sexy looking but mostly pointless threads. Now imagine there are 200 of them, oh and 200 bolts to go with them...
Owen S.
HWM-Water Ltd