Custom bolted connections

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to use design accelerator to place a connection in an assembly in Inventor 2012. I need the connection / fitting to be a custom length, it's basically a long fastening pin through 4 holes however Inventor will not allow this type of custom length - any ideas ? I have done this by simply extruding a sketch to the desired length but I could do with it shown properly as a pin connection with a securing head on each end.

[cbenner]

Not sure what you're trying to do, but I've used BC and after selecting start and end planes and the fastener, it always let me drag the fastener to whatever length I wanted, within the table of standard bolt lengths.  If that's what's holding you back, you may want to publish a custom fastener with more length choices to pull from.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info. I have managed to place the bolted connection and I do get th eoption to drag the bolt to the length but not as much as I need. It seems restricted to a certain length, any ideas ? Cheers

[cbenner]

You can modify the Content Center family table to add lengths.  If you are using a standard bolt, you may need to copy it to a custom library fisrt before you can make any changes.  These tables of fasteners are usually built to standard length increments.  Another thought would be to create your own custom fastener ipart, and publish it to the CC.