Threads do not show up in STL file

[Anonymous]

This has to be a bug in the program.

I created a part, added a standard 5/8" threaded hold in it.

It looks great.

I export to STL thinking that I can print this part on my 3D printer.

There are no threads, just a hole.

What is wrong with the STL export?

You try it and let me know what you get.

Post your STL file if you can see the threads.

Autodesk Inventor 2013 with latest updates.

[pball · Accepted solution]

If you used the standard hole feature, there won't be threads on exported parts. The standard hole feature and thread feature only put the appearnace of threads on a part, they do not model the threads.

If you need to create a 100% accurate model for exporting you will have to model the threads another way. You can do it manually or I have heard of addons which will model the threads for you. I can't help you with modeling them but I hope you understand what's happening.

edit:

Here is a link to the threads addon which makes adding modeled threads easy.

http://apps.exchange.autodesk.com/INVNTOR/Detail/Index?id=autodesk.appstore.exchange.autodesk.com%3a...

[Anonymous]

Thanks,

But it seems downright wrong to not include the feature as a standard part of Inventor.

What else is missing?

JA

[pball]

The more features you have on a part the larger the file size and the more power it takes to generate the 3D model. Threads are quite complex and would require lots of power to model and update. I know I've had assemblies with hundreds of bolts and nuts in them and they would grind to a halt if they had real threads.

So instead pictures are used to represent threads which saves on size and complexity. Since most of the time models don't need to actually model threads as long as you can see "threads" and get proper callouts in drawings.

[jdkriek]

I'd never cut (coil) threads on fasteners, but have written macros to do so on Pipes (NPT) where there are only 1 or 2 occurrences in an Assembly.