Modelling Threads
@anthonyserridge
Direct modeling of threads is still not present in Inventor. It has been requested a few times over the years, you can see some of the Ideas HERE by doing a search on "threads". Vote for your favorites! Good luck!
Did you find a post helpful? Then feel free to give likes to these posts!
Did your question get successfully answered? Then just click on the 'Accept solution' button. Thanks and Enjoy!
Chris Benner
Community Manager - NAMER / D&M
@anthonyserridge wrote:
It surely must not just be me who finds this to be the main failing of inventor.
Why is it a failing? What's the actual advantage of having threads present on the solid model, other than burning up extra CPU and GPU cycles to calculate and display? The way it shows now is pretty much ideal for doing drawings or for machined parts: the hole size that's shown is more or less the tap drill size for 100% threads.
Rusty
@LT.Rusty
Modeled threads are required for 3D Printing more than anything else. Printers cannot read the thread data from Inventor's cosmetic threads.
Did you find a post helpful? Then feel free to give likes to these posts!
Did your question get successfully answered? Then just click on the 'Accept solution' button. Thanks and Enjoy!
Chris Benner
Community Manager - NAMER / D&M
@CGBenner wrote:
@LT.Rusty
Modeled threads are required for 3D Printing more than anything else. Printers cannot read the thread data from Inventor's cosmetic threads.
I know about printed threads. However, absent some extremely expensive hardware, printed threads are almost worthless except as demonstrations of how much time you spent to calibrate your printer. (For reference- at one point I had my setup dialed in well enough to print functional 85% threads at 1/2-28.) Just the variations in filament from one roll to the next can take functional threads and make them unusable on the next print.
Thing is, they're weak. If you put actual real-world torque on them, they'll generally just tear out, and tolerance stackup issues have a nasty habit of forcing your threads to be so loose that there's hardly any engagement if you want off-the-shelf fasteners to work.
Applications that really benefit from functional threads generally get designed to have brass threaded inserts that get heat-set, or there's a pocket for a nut or something else, rather than having printed threads.
Rusty
Hi! On top of what experts already mentioned, the proper way to create such thread geometry is to use Solid Sweep, which mimic the thread cutting process much closer.
Another option is to use Fusion 360. It does have the ability to turn on the physical thread in the Hole feature. Also it has more extensive support for 3D printing workflows.
Many thanks!
Johnson Shiue (johnson.shiue@autodesk.com)
Software Test Engineer
@Rich-T wrote:
Good points 'johnsonshiue' but why doesn't inventor have this functionality built in? Swapping between software platforms is a PITA and is not efficient.
I get the feeling that Autodesk isn't interested because they've already done it for F360 - so why should we bother with plugging it into Inventor?
Again: what purpose would it serve to have the threads modeled in Inventor? I'm still uncertain of what the purpose is in Fusion, tbh.
Any threads that you're going to 3D print, you're almost certainly going to be modeling those from scratch to get your clearances and tolerances correct if you want them to work. Other manufacturing processes, you don't need a visual representation there, and all you're doing is loading down the system with unnecessarily flashy graphics. It's certainly not going to help your FEA and dynamic simulation to have all those extra non-planar surfaces to figure out.
Rusty
Echoing everything that @JDMather said!
There is one exception, though, to the difficulty in modeling functional threads for 3D printing, and that is when printing in metal. While printed metal parts are not (yet) as strong as machined, they are much stronger than printed plastic, and resolution is much better also.
Sam B
Inventor Pro 2024.1 | Windows 10 Home 22H2
@SBix26 wrote:
Echoing everything that @JDMather said!
There is one exception, though, to the difficulty in modeling functional threads for 3D printing, and that is when printing in metal. While printed metal parts are not (yet) as strong as machined, they are much stronger than printed plastic, and resolution is much better also.
Sam B
Inventor Pro 2024.1 | Windows 10 Home 22H2
When the finances start getting to the point where a metal printer looks like it might be around the same cost as my own private tropical island and an army of mercenaries... that's when I might start to look at modeled threads as being a need.
Rusty
