Display the core diameter of an external thread

[P-D91]

Suggestion: To be able to display the core diameter for an external thread; on a 3D part.

This helps with checking mating parts withing and assembly, giving you a fast visual indication that your threads and their pitch's marry up with one another.

See example

[swalton]

Have you used the Interference command released in Inventor 2017.3 yet?  It checks for matching threads.

See http://help.autodesk.com/view/INVNTOR/2018/ENU/?guid=GUID-9BB66107-2706-4B8B-8645-9D3307FBE4C7

[P-D91]

Yes this feature is useful, but you cant beat the simplicity of a quick visual check.

[swalton]

I'm not trying to discourage your idea, I want to push you to refine/enhance it.

I can imagine this working for a small assembly of 10-20 fasteners, but my top levels have hundreds to thousands.  The difference between the pitch diameters of a bolt and  a nut is measured in a few thousands of an inch for the same size.  That is hard to see without zooming into each fastener. 

Creo adds a surface at the thread minor diameter, but you can't see it very well in a shaded view.  I can switch to a hidden line or wireframe view to get a better view of the surfaces. Its still hard to tell if I have a 1/2-13 UNC bolt with a 1/2-12 UNS nut from those surfaces.

The interference tool seems like the most general solution to the problem.

How do you want to see this work without modeling the actual thread form?

[P-D91]

You're getting sidetracked here a bit mate.

All i'm suggesting is a visual dotted line as per the attached, which shows the core of the thread.

I quite like the Creo version.