How to manage fasteners in toolbox and smart fastener for Grade 5. etc 2

[Russatcignys]

How can I manage fasteners in toolbox and smart fastener to have unique properties for grade 5, grade 8, steel, stainless, cadium plated, oxided bolts for the same size? I need a unique configuration, part number, specification, description for each. For example a 1/4-20 X 1.00 lg hex head bolt grade 8 has a part nubmer of HH 1/4-20 X 1.00 G8, the same bolt in stainless has a part number of HH 1/4-20 X 1.00 SS and the same bolt with plating can have HH 1/4-20 X 1.00 G8 ZP for zinc plating.
How can I select a bolt size and pick a material or plating or grade? This is a big issue for my company.
Thank you for your help!

 

[Beggar]

Here's how I handled this for SS fasteners:

[ol]
[li]Create a derived standard (Tools-Options-Data Options-Edit Standards Data) from the ANSI Inch Standard.[/li]
[li]Edit the name of the bolt (e.g. I renamed "Regular" to "Stainless" by (Toolbox-Browser Configuration-Catalog Document), making appropriate selections in the drop-down boxes, and then editing the description.[/li]
[li]Edit the material and part number of the new bolt by inserting one into an assembly, opening that part, making the changes, and then saving it.[/li]
[/ol]

Now I actually went one step further and edited the dimensions of the new parts (washers, specifically) inside the Access database but that is not supported by SWX or the VARs so you're sort of (er, completely) on your own when you do that.

I even used a similar method to create alternate material stocks from the Structural Steel library and even additional shapes (flat bar and tubing).

My biggest concern is what's going to happen to my custom work once I make the jump to 2005.


--------------------
Bring back the HP-15

http://www.hp15c.org

--------------------

 

[cowman]

This works great but was unable to rename the fasteners per step 2 in your response. Cant find Catalog Document under the Toolbox-Browswe Configuration. Could this be because I am running SW 2005? If so is there a way to edit the names?
Thanks

 

[drawoh]

Russatcignys,

To specify grades 5 and 8 and things like cadmium plate, you need to control the BOM entry of the screw. Unless the more recent SolidWorks have improved at this, the toolbox does not work very well.

You would be better off creating your own library of parts. This does not take all that long if you use the embedded Excel design table, especially if you can find a dimension table on the internet that you can copy and paste from.

The design table gives you a lot of control over the BOM entry.

JHG

 

[cninneman]

Toolbox in SW2005 does allow you to use "duplicate part numbers for geometrically equal components". I really don't know why it's not detailed better in the help file. There are some bugs in the toolbox software that may cause a few other problems, when doing this, but no show stoppers.

 

[cowman]

How do you give the components the duplicate part numbers and descriptions?

 

[cninneman]

I was out of the office today, I'll try and get something posted on monday. I'm not sure what happened to my original post, but I mentioned that I wrote a procedure on how to do this, with screen shots for clarity. Problem is it was done in Word, and I'm not sure how or where I can post the file for all to see, any ideas let me know.

Chris

 

[cowman]

I thought I saw your response on how to do it, but when I came back later to print it out it was gone. Thought it was just me having flashbacks or something.

 

[cninneman]

cowman,

I did some quick learnin this morning, and got myself a free website registered. I transfered the document that I wrote, and put it on the website. Haven't really done that before, so I hope it all turns out OK. Here's the link:

http://nutting.150m.com/Word_Files/cust_toolbox.html

Hope it helps you out, let me know if you have questions.

Chris

 

[cowman]

Works great!
Thanks for the help.