Best Practice for adding hundreds bolts to a model.

[jldriggers75]

I'm working on a structural project and I want to have a bolt count in the BOM. I tried inserting directly from McMaster Carr but after several hundred A325 structural bolts, nuts and washers my computer bogged down to  a crawl and it's a monster. (i9-11900KF, 64GB RAM, NVIDIA Quadro 4000). I'm going back and creating simple bodies as place holders for the hardware, I don't need the threads or markings modeled, only a length and count. I'd like some guidance to add several hundred hardware components as efficiently as possible.

[g-andresen]

Hi,

1. Insert all the same bolts into one component.  > maybe Open BOM offers better possibilities than the Fusion BOM.
2. for the assignment this plugin could help

günther

[jhackney1972]

You did not say if you need to place these bolts accurately, but I doubt it, you only need a count in the Parts List.  If this is the case you can use a simple rectangular array and get an accuracy count in the Parts List.  If you want the bolts can be placed off the drawing sheet so they will not plot.

[TrippyLighting]

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@g-andresen wrote:

... maybe Open BOM offers better possibilities than the Fusion BOM.

.

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Absolutely!

However, I am not sure what the free version offers. A base level subscription is in the same price range as a base level (no extensions) subscription of Fusion 360.

[jldriggers75]

I do need the bolts shown in their location.

[jldriggers75]

I have created a separate component for all my field bolts. I'll definitely check out the OPEN BOM but I don't think I have time for a new learning curve in this project.

[jldriggers75]

While I've got 30 years with Autocad (95% AutocadLT) I'm just beginning to work with 3D models. So for this area consider me a complete novice.