Smartfastener or Not To Smartfastener

[macduff]

All,
Just looking a vote here. My buddy and I are having some differences of the Toolbox fasteners and how to use them in an assembly. I choose assemble one fastener at a time and pattern it by feature driven or circular/linear pattern. He chooses to use Smartfasteners because it quicker (he says) and looks better in the assembly tree. I say it's better to do it my way because of past threads with bugs in the function and then in turn causing errors in models.

Let me know your thoughts,


Macduff
Colin Fitzpatrick
Sr. Mechanical Designer
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[ctopher]

I have had rebuild errors with Smartfasteners, so I don't use them.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP3.1 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
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[SBaugh]

Smart fasteners are not Smart at all.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[MadMango]

We insert an instance and pattern.

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[CorBlimeyLimey]

I insert an instance & pattern too.

SF are a great idea in principle, but I don't like the practice. I haven't tried them in SW05 or 06 so don't know if it has improved.


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[macduff]

You guys are the best! Thanks for your input. It's exactly what I wanted to hear.

Best,

Macduff
Colin Fitzpatrick
Sr. Mechanical Designer
macduff's SW page
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[Phadreus]

SW Smart Fasteners = Great in theory, poor in reality. We've spent over 100 hours trying to develop the Fastener Library (many of which were spent with our VAR and Tech Reps from SW) to get it to some decent level of usability, with little to no success. We are now looking for a decent third party fastener package. Any suggestions?

Mark Price

http://www.assembly-testww.com

Automated Assembly & Test Systems

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

I used SolidMech 3.2 to create my own library of fasteners. I believe it is now called CadParts.

http://www.cadalog.com/product_info.php?product_id=144

Just create a fastener type, say 1/4"-20 SHCS, & use a DT to control the lengths & materials.


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[brudje]

For those of you using smart fasteners and PDM...Where do you stored this directory??? I have my own , but where should I put this so everyone can see it, add to it , and use it???

 

[TateJ]

I thought SMART FASTENERS were created from a database "on the fly" & the parts created are stored in the folder where youe assembly resides. So there'd be no dedicated folder in your PDM vault. Am I missing something here?

BTW - we developed our own "library" of hardware one or two versions before the ToolBox was released. So we've never bothered to implement the Smart Fasteners.

Also I wil place one set of hardware & use a Feature Pattern any time I can.

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[macduff]

Should be stored under toolbox references, I think?

Macduff
Colin Fitzpatrick
Sr. Mechanical Designer
macduff's SW page
Inhouse System
Pentium(4)2.80GHz
Ram 1.00 GB
SW2005 Office SP 3.1
Windows 2000 SP4.0
NIVIDA Quadro4 750 XGL