Adding washers with no nice edges

[leungkGKJHQ]

I've migrated some Solidworks and am having a tough time switching over to the Joint system.

I want to add a washer to a threaded stud (see screenshot). There are no nice edges, and later on I want to adjust the length of the stud as well.

How do I do this?

I've tried to do a Slider joint between the washer and stud. But I can't get it to "stop" at the horizontal surface using a planar joint. I get conflicts.

If I do a Rigid joint between the washer at the top of the stud, I can manually slide the washer down. But I would have to eye-ball it so it's just at the horizontal surface. This will "break" once I change the length of the stud.

Any advice would be highly recommended!

[etfrench · Accepted solution]

There are several ways to do this.

1.  Select the bottom of the extrusion slot and one end of the bolt.  Offset the joint the distance to the edge of the extrusion slot.

2. Create a joint origin in a sketch(es) either on the extrusion or on the bolt or on both.

[TheCADWhisperer]

@leungkGKJHQ 

What does the head of the fastener look like (SHCS, Hex, other)?

Can you File>Export your *.f3d file to your local drive and then Attach it here to a Reply?

[leungkGKJHQ]

This is okay. As someone from Solidworks, hard coding in dimensions (especially when they are weird, uneven numbers from the aluminum extrusions) isn't nice. I'll take me a bit to get use to the different philosophy.

[Drewpan]

Hi,

Just a suggestion. Why are you modelling the hardware at all? Under normal circumstances

a production model only needs the joints because it is likely that you already know that the

parts of the model will be assembled from a box of standard parts that you ordered by the

thousand. I.E Surely you are not going to actually fabricate these washers? If this is the case

then modelling all of this hardware only looks pretty. If you are from marketing and your

intention is to do a full blown exploded view for a glossy brochure showing all of these parts

you will either model them or insert McM-C parts. The same ones you will order from them.

For functional modelling purposes a simple rigid joint between the main components

represents a bolt with a washer. If you test it it will still work. When you make your production

prototype the rigid joint will be replaced with the actual hardware.

Cheers

Andrew