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Aerospace fastener Toolbox library 2

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Bentwing

Aerospace
Feb 21, 2008
4
I'm looking for a toolbox library of aerospace fasteners, fittings and misc parts for use in the design of an experimental aircraft. I found Traceparts at which appears to have all I'd need but the SolidWorks price is $1200. That's pretty steep for a one-man gang and a one-off hobby project. (Well, everyone has dreams of selling kits but I try to stay realistic.) They have the ability to buy just selected components but it's not clear to me if they integrate with the Toolbox or how their insertion program works (they said it's based on SW2003).

Does anyone have experience with Traceparts? Are there any other sources of AN/MS/NAS/NASM part libraries? I'm looking for the basic nuts, bolts, washers, screws, rivets, clevis pins, hose fittings, clamps, etc. not the esoteric specialty parts. For background, I'm a rusty AAE, a rookie with SolidWorks, currently using 2006 and upgrading to 2008 as soon as I get the time. Thanks for any assistance.
 
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Procuring the parts is not the issue. I'm looking for the CAD drawings preferably in the form of a SolidWorks Toolbox library.

Regard,
Greg Young
 
If you can't find any on 3Dcontentcenteral then you will have to download the Mil Spec and model them yourself. If list what you're looking for I might have some in my own personal mil spec fastener library.

Heckler [americanflag]
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

This post contains no political overtones or undertones for that matter and in no way represents the poster's political agenda.
 
Creating standard MS parts from the SolidWorks ToolBox library isn't that daunting. Just let toolbox generate a fastener of each diameter then designtable the heck out of the part to generate all of your lengths based on the MS datasheet. In case you weren't aware, you can get all of the MS datasheets at:


-Dustin
Professional Engineer
Certified SolidWorks Professional
 
I guess I'll have to roll my own. I just couldn't believe that aerospace/Mil-spec hardware was not easily available... considering SolidWorks is made by Dassult, a major aerospace firm. Oh well. I know it's not tough, just mind numbing and, I thought, unnecessary.

Traceparts is somewhat misleading. They claim a million free parts but the ones I tried all said they were licensed and required a fee. Their Solidworks product is $1200 which is too steep for me. They also mention yet another price for "licensed" catalogs. I don't object to a fee but their ala cart pricing looks like I could drop a couple hundred bucks and not really be sure I would get what I want. Their web site really sucks so I was hoping someone who actually used it could clarify.

In the end, like so many things, I guess I'll just have to do it myself to get what I want. It's a shame because one of the many reasons I purchased SolidWorks was the promise of plugging in things like an "aerospace fastener toolbox". Not fatal, just disappointing.

Regard,
Greg Young
 
Bentwing,
I'm not a fan of Traceparts because it is mostly European. 3DCC is awesome and also have military fastners uploaded to the site. If you type the word "fitzpatrick" in the search bar, you'll find my parts I uploaded.
I know for fact that others upload military fasteners as well.

Hope this helps

Colin Fitzpatrick (aka Macduff)
Mechanical Designer
Solidworks 2007 SP 5.0
Dell 490 XP Pro SP 2
Xeon CPU 3.00 GHz 3.00 GB of RAM
nVida Quadro FX 3450 512 MB
I'm just a little verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves. I'll give you a topic. Pink Floyd, was neither Pink nor Floyd. Discuss!--“Coffee Talk” Mike Myers SNL
 
I guess I'll have to roll my own.
Have you used Design Tables? If not search this forum and the SWx help.....they will make creating the hardware faster. I would start by creating the base part using the same dimension scheme as listed on the Mil Spec then create an Excel Spreadsheet with the corresponding dimesnions/cells. So when it read into your base part.....bam all the other parts are created.

Heckler [americanflag]
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

This post contains no political overtones or undertones for that matter and in no way represents the poster's political agenda.
 
Macduff, thanks for the links. I use 3DCC and had searched before but apparently didn't hold my tongue right:p That's a good start.

Heckler, I've played with design tables but haven't yet used them seriously. Guess it's time to do it.

Regards,
Greg Young
 
Bentwing,
Thanks for the star. I have more parts for you to look at if you like. Just contact me though 3DCC.

Best,

Colin

Colin Fitzpatrick (aka Macduff)
Mechanical Designer
Solidworks 2007 SP 5.0
Dell 490 XP Pro SP 2
Xeon CPU 3.00 GHz 3.00 GB of RAM
nVida Quadro FX 3450 512 MB
I'm just a little verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves. I'll give you a topic. Pink Floyd, was neither Pink nor Floyd. Discuss!--“Coffee Talk” Mike Myers SNL
 
I subscribed to Traceparts, it cost 99 euros, approx 150dollars. The parts are a little disappointing (basic imported lumps that you can't do anything with in SW), so I think the ideas of design library modelling your own sounds like a better approach. You may have to speculate to accumulate....
 
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