Fusion 360 Custom Thread Utility

[MRWakefield]

Every time someone asked for a custom thread (or a standard that isn't included with F360) here in the forum, or I needed one myself, I would think about writing some kind of utility to make the whole process easier, and each time I would mull over whether it would be worth investing the time for such an occasional requirement.

Well, some months ago I bit the bullet and decided I'd finally write something. It's taken a few months on and off and although I really wrote it for my own use I thought I might as well share it. If you like it and feel the need to give something back then you can send me a Ko-Fi tip

It can take an existing Fusion thread file and convert it to CSV (which can be edited in your favourite spreadsheet program) and it will also open a CSV file (of the correct format!) and allow you to generate a new thread file. It has the ability to adjust the Major, Pitch, and Minor diameters by a given amount to compensate for 3D printing (an alternative to adding an offset to the faces of the thread) or for creating in-between sizes (such as a TR21x4 - used on Sodastream CO2 cylinder). I've written a basic 'Rough Guide' that's included with the app but hopefully most of it will be obvious enough.

The app also includes a form for manually entering thread data and a calculator for non-standard metric threads. This took a lot of time studying the ISO standard to get the code right for this so was very relieved to get this part working! Maybe one day, when I feel like diving in again I might take a look at adding other thread standards.

Here's a screenshot of the main Windows application window.

Anyway, I hope some of you find it useful. You can download an installer from my ko-fi page. Hopefully you won't have too many questions.

Edit: I was reminded by @HughesTooling to mention the ThreadKeeper program for syncing custom thread files. I highly recommend it for making life much easier!

EDIT: I'm in the process of porting I've now ported this over to MacOS as well. You'll find the MacOS version on my ko-fi page as well. Be aware that it hasn't been signed or notarised so you'll get the usual warnings about potential viruses 'n' stuff. If you're worried just run it through a virus scan. Anyway, I hope all you Mac users find it useful. Let me know if you have any issues and I'll try to iron them out.

 

 

[MRWakefield]

Ok, the latest version with the added 'Custom' thread calculator page. In addition to this, the application will also find the nearest tapping drill for Metric, UN and Custom threads when creating new sizes.

If you have any problems or come across any bugs please let me know.

EDIT: Oh, I almost forgot... it now supports truncation of metric and UN threads in the calculators as well.

[tills13]

It this open sourced? It's a little sketchy downloading an .exe from Google Drive and installing it on my computer.

[MRWakefield]

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@tills13 wrote:

It this open sourced? It's a little sketchy downloading an .exe from Google Drive and installing it on my computer.

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No, sorry, it's not open sourced. I understand your concerns with downloading an executable from some random guy's Google Drive, so I would recommend running it through an anti-virus scan. Either that or run it in a VM or sandbox until you're happy that it's safe.

[MRWakefield]

I've just uploaded a bug fix that resolves an issue I recently noticed. After opening a CSV file, the mouse cursor would remain as an hourglass instead of reverting to normal.

[ipmcc]

I'm late to the party here, but...

@MRWakefield Would you consider open-sourcing this tool? (Or sharing the source with me, personally?) I use a Mac, and have considerable experience coding for MacOS/iOS, but I am certainly not the thread expert it's evident that you are. Would you be interested in supporting a more widely usable port of this tool? Let me know.

Thanks,

Ian

[MRWakefield]

Thanks for your interest. Someone else asked the same question here recently. I'm not sure I could cope with the embarrassment of someone who knows what they're doing looking at the code to be honest! It's written in Free Pascal using the Lazarus IDE so if I had access to a Mac I think I should be able to recompile it for that platform.

Thanks for the compliment but I'm definitely no screw thread expert. I have just spent many hours pulling my rapidly disappearing hair out studying various standards!

[MRWakefield]

Ok, so I've been looking into making a MacOS version of the program, and after a number of dead-ends and jumping over various hurdles it's looking promising. After some tweaking, the fundamentals seem to be working, I just need to work out a couple of things regarding how and where Fusion stores various information on a MacOS system. Unfortunately I'm not able to install Fusion on my MacOS dev system so I won't be able to test it out, so I'll probably need some testers! Anyway, I think I've found out where Fusion stores its thread files so I'll start working on that next.

Here are a couple of screenshots:

[MRWakefield]

So, regarding the MacOS version: The most important functions for creating thread files are there but I need to work on the MacOS specific file system functions to get function parity with the Windows version. You'll find the MacOS version here. Be aware that it hasn't been signed or notarised so you'll get the usual warnings about potential viruses 'n' stuff. If you're worried just run it through a virus scan. Anyway, I hope all you Mac users find it useful. Let me know if you have any issues and I'll try to iron them out.

[ipmcc]

Thanks for your effort here!

Clicking the link you provided, I had to submit a form asking for permission before I could access it, so if you see an email about that, it might be me. I look forward to checking it out!

- Ian

[MRWakefield]

Yes, sorry about that. You should have received an email from me by now and all should be good. In my haste I forgot to set the permissions before posting the link. Hope it works for you. Let me know of any further issues.

[MRWakefield]

I think I have got the MacOS file system stuff working now. As I said before I'm not able to install Fusion on my MacOS dev system so I've had to set up a folder structure that (at least partially) simulates what would be present in a real installation. It works in my test setup but it really needs testing on a real system. I've also signed up with Ko-Fi and added a small image on the main application window that if clicked will take you to my Ko-Fi page, where you can send me a tip if you've found it useful enough to do so. Please test it if you can and let me know of any issues, or equally if it works!

[MRWakefield]

I've fixed a recently introduced bug that I only noticed last night. For some reason the ability to filter the CSV data grid had gone awry. I've no idea why or how it happened and I'm still somewhat baffled by it. I use Subversion (TortoiseSVN more specifically) so I was able to go back to earlier revisions to see where I might have broken it. I spent quite some time comparing code but could find nothing that might have caused the issue. The odd thing is that if I ran say revision 5's exe, it worked as it should. However, if I recompiled the code from that same revision then it exhibited the issue. Anyway, I tried all sorts of things before I managed to fix it. 😌 The MacOS version had the same issue and I've managed to fix that too. While I was there I fixed the code around enabling and disabling the filter buttons so they should now behave themselves. The new versions have now been uploaded so if you're experiencing any issues then I'd recommend updating.

As always, if you have any problems then just let me know, and I'll try to fix them. Thanks for your interest.

[MRWakefield]

Latest Mac version has been uploaded. This one fixes some of the drop-downs that needed widening in the Mac version due to truncation of the text.

If anyone's been trying it out I'd like to hear whether it's working ok.

Thanks again for your interest.

[jamhops]

I am trying to use this on the Mac, i dont know if I am using it wrong or if it needs work; I cant get the table to auto populate the generate xml button is always greyed out for me. When completing manual entry I fill in some of the fields add a row and it appears in the manual entry table but never shows up in the main table. What am I doing wrong I couldnt find a step by step guide or example I could use to validate if it is acting as expected?

[MRWakefield]

Once you've got your data into the table at the bottom of the manual entry form you then need to save it as a CSV file. You then need to open that in the main form where you can convert it to an XML thread file for Fusion. I have considered making this workflow a little easier by prompting the user whether they want to open the new file immediately after saving it. I might add this for the next release.

I hope this helps. If you have any more problems just let me know.