Fastener Modeling Prerequisites
If you plan to add fasteners to your model, the model must meet the following basic conditions:
• The model must be an assembly.
• You can add as many fasteners to your assembly as you want, but you can only pass a fastener through two components.
• You cannot define zero-length fasteners. When adding fasteners to quilt assemblies, you could inadvertently create zero-length fasteners if you do not correctly account for shell thickness when you place the assembly components. To prevent this problem, be sure to include offsets that are greater than or equal to:
(part1 shell thickness + part2 shell thickness) / 2
When adding fasteners to midsurface assemblies, ensure that the midsurface offsets you use do not result in direct contact between two midsurfaces you intend to fasten.
• To create a fastener based on actual holes in your model, both the components to be fastened must have holes through which the bolt or the screw can pass. In the case of a bolt, both holes must be through holes. For a screw, only the component on the screw head side of the fastener connection must be a through hole. The component on the screw tip side can be a through hole or a blind hole.
Any hole that participates in a fastener connection must be a right cylindrical hole. In other words, the hole axis must be perpendicular to the component surface and have straight sides.
The two holes should have approximately the same diameter. Their axes must be coincident within some tolerance.
• If you plan to create a fastener based on points in your model, both components must have points to establish the bolt or screw axis. The axes must be coincident within some tolerance.
• There should not be any interfering or
intervening geometry in the fastener path—for example, interfering or intervening geometry from one of the fastener components, or a third component that lies between the two fastener components and in the fastener path.