When parts are bolted together, a clearance hole in one part must face a compatible tapped hole in the mating part. Inventor has no built-in way to verify this, so mistakes are only caught during manufacturing or assembly. Examples that go undetected today:
- A Ø6.5 clearance hole facing an M8 tapped hole (screw won't fit).
- A clearance hole too large for the thread it faces.
- Two tapped holes of different metric sizes facing each other.
- A counterbore/countersink too shallow or too narrow for the screw head.
- Two clearance holes facing each other with no thread on the axis (likely missing a thread).
All the geometry needed to detect these is already in the model.
Proposed idea
A model-check that scans an assembly for coaxial hole pairs between different parts that are incoherent, with ERROR/WARNING severity, configurable tolerances (face separation, axis offset, ISO 273 clearance), and click-to-highlight in the 3D view. Like interference checking, but aware of hole intent (clearance vs. tapped) rather than just solid geometry.
Related API gap
While prototyping this as an iLogic rule, HoleFeature.ThreadInfo returns Nothing and ThreadDesignation comes back empty (Inventor 2023), so an add-in can't read a hole's thread designation and must reverse-engineer the nominal from the modeled minor diameter. Please expose this metadata reliably through the API.
I have a working iLogic prototype confirming this is feasible from existing model data — a native implementation would benefit anyone assembling fastened parts.
