Metric Project - bolt length ignoring new bolt mapping table

[Anonymous]

Hi All

I've been looking through the fourms and thanks to all who have posted about bolt length mapping.

I have a metric project in 2018 and I'm using the ASME fittings from the Plant 3D catalogs.

I'll just run through my process hoping someone can spot my mistake.

First off I copy an existing bolt set, rename and edit the bolt set lengths in the catalog to match our clients standards.

Then I checked the Bolt Compatible Standard is named correctly ( I used ASME A193)

Then make a new bolt standard.

Then added the new bolt set to the spec.

The problem occurs when the bolt set go into the model.

The new bolt length ignoring the new bolt standard and it seams to use the "Default" bolt standard.

Has anyone had this problem?

Kind regards Chris.

[ZZikic]

Do the flange thicknesses match?  Both the bolt set and connecting flange thicknesses should match for the "default" to be bypassed.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the tip zeke_zikic.

I've checked and the flange lengths are the same see pics below.

Any thing else I could be missing?

[Anonymous]

Has anyone had this problem?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Chris

[Anonymous]

Hi Plant3d users.

I have talked to another user who is working in a mixed metric project an they are having the same issue.

Dose the bolt mapping only work for imperial projects?

Is anyone else struggling with this problem?

Cheers Chris

[Russell_Collins · Accepted solution]

Hi, I found a similar issue today in a project. I had two root causes:

1. Bolt Length Mappings not transferring into Specification.
   This was caused by not removing the bolt set from the spec then adding it again after defining the bolt mappings. You can check which bolt mappings are in the spec by interrogating the .pspc file, refer below:
   
   Bolt Mapping Table as "StandardBoltLength" table in database file for spec
   If this table isn't in there your bolt length mappings aren't being used in the spec, so you'll be getting either the round-up to nearest 1/4" or 10mm (depending how the software is treating it).
   
   
2. Components sized "incorrectly"
   After a lengthy interrogation we determined that the initial formation of one of our flanges was in metric, so all the sizing of the component for the parametric part creation was metric. However, the flange port had been changed to imperial, and even in the properties bar in modelspace after the piece had been placed it was displaying with units saying in. However, the "Flange Thickness" needs to be in the units of size parameters, not in the units of the Port Connection (despite falling under that portion of the fields)
   
   Flange size parameters in mm, flange connection port properties in mm for DN and OD, but not for flange thickness
   This lead to incorrect bolt lengths being calculated, as the flange thicknesses were essentially ~1mm when converted to metric from 0.945in. Also just realised my 0.003 was rounding error from converting twice, so might fix that.

Anyway, I assume that either of these issues could be affecting your project or any other mixed metric P3D projects. After fixing these the bolt lengths report back as they should, based on what other forums / the in-the-pipes blog say it should do for calculating.

Also, semi-unrelated, but if you use lap flange joints the lap-piece flange length doesn't get interpreted when creating the joint, only the standard parts of the actual flange interface. That also impacts how flanging may need to be configured to report correct bolt-lengths.

Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

Hi Russell thanks for you post your solution is spot on.

We ended up getting help from Autodesk.

Big thanks to Warwick Sullivan from A2K and David Manning from Autodesk.

Our main issue was not entering a length with enough decimal places into the bolt mapping table e.g. 60mm = 2.362204724” and we put in 2.362”

The other trick is to change the bolt length in the catalogue to just below the length in the bolt mapping table e.g. bolt mapping table length = 2.362204724” catalogue length = 2.36”

Hope this helps others out there with their metric or mixed metric bolt lenghts.

Cheers Chris

Go the All Blacks!