Fasteners workbench based on screw-maker

[Jee-Bee]

How do i install plugin loader?

[microelly2]

How do i install plugin loader?

https://github.com/microelly2/freecad-pluginloader

[shaise]

Hi All,

Update: Fasteners now includes PEM Metric Press-Nuts (Self clinching nuts for sheet metal)
http://theseger.com/projects/2015/06/fa ... r-freecad/

shai

[triplus]

Nice.

P.S. I looked on your todo list. Any chance of including regular nuts in the future?

[shaise]

P.S. I looked on your todo list. Any chance of including regular nuts in the future?

Your wish is my command. Standard nuts added.

[triplus]

P.S. I looked on your todo list. Any chance of including regular nuts in the future?

Your wish is my command. Standard nuts added.

Great! Can you confirm visual corruption for M30 and M36?

I am thinking Part -> Create simple copy could be a nice strategy to overcome the issue if the .fcstd file will be opened on location where your workbench isn't installed. Maybe you could add a button like that in the toolbar (Create simple copy) to raise awareness of this fact?

[shaise]

Can you confirm visual corruption for M30 and M36?
I am thinking Part -> Create simple copy could be a nice strategy to overcome the issue if the .fcstd file will be opened on location where your workbench isn't installed...

Yes you are right on both points.
For the M30 and M36 issue, It looks like a OpenCascade Boolean operation bug which I have no access to. To overcome this I have tweaked the dimensions of the nut's features slightly and it seems to work properly now.
Regarding your 'simplify' idea, I could not agree more. I have added a new toolbar function to the fasteners workbench. To use it, simply select all the objects you want to simplify and click the simplify button. They will appear as new "Shape" parts. You can then delete the original fastners, and the result is a simple FreeCAD file. This simplify function can work on SheetMetal parts as well.
I have updated both Git and my site with the new version.

[triplus]

Works good. What happened to the blue colour?

Anyway i don't have strong opinion about this but maybe in the future you will be interested to work on this:

• Label name should reflect some additional information. At least for example M12x25. Icons in tree view are nice visual representation of the type. But the problem is this would need to change when parameters are changed and that probably complicates things. Nonetheless this would be a nice additional feature to have.
• Creating simple copy object should preserve original object label.
• For the ones that don't have for example M64 variant (Example ISO1207 diameter property should end at M10).

For nuts to have optional thread property that is something Ulrich might implement in the future in the back end you use?

Anyway nice job and i will for sure use this workbench in the future.

[shaise]

Most of the things you have mentioned are already in my to do list. For some of them I will need deeper knowledge of FreeCAD internals in order to implement.
Regarding thread generation, its nice to have, but I think not all that worth the work. For one, in nuts it is mostly hidden, and also it sometimes take ages to generate. (at least with my experience with Ulrich's screws)
Regarding the change of colors - it is mostly to conform to FreeCAD color system: part generations: yellow, part modification: blue. http://freecadweb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Gui_Command

[triplus]

Most of the things you have mentioned are already in my to do list. For some of them I will need deeper knowledge of FreeCAD internals in order to implement.

Good to hear that.

Regarding thread generation, its nice to have, but I think not all that worth the work. For one, in nuts it is mostly hidden, and also it sometimes take ages to generate. (at least with my experience with Ulrich's screws)

I agree and in my models i usually don't use threads. But for 3D printing it's a must. But then again printing 3D nuts probably is small use case and creating threads by doing boolean operations with inserted bolts makes more sense to get there if the model needs it. Anyway maybe back end you use will gain this in the future as i am quite sure this WB will make Ulrich work more popular and used in the future.

Regarding the change of colors - it is mostly to conform to FreeCAD color system: part generations: yellow, part modification: blue. http://freecadweb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Gui_Command

Makes sense and i am sure i will get used to it soon.