yang686526

visible threaded hole...argghh!!!!
hello everyone!!..another frustrated credit cruncher has joined the forum
after 4 hours of pain, i'm hoping someone here will enlighten me on the following matter:
why is the cosmetic thread not threaded!??!
i need to have threaded holes in my model (look like they do in the real world) however, when choosing a cosmetic thread, all i get is an additional circle around the hole

any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks everyone

check out our whitepaper library.
that's why they are called "cosmetic", it just represents the threads. depending on your version of solidworks, you could select the face of the pre-tap hole and add a "threaded" image. do you really need actual helix-based threads in your model?
cosmetic threads are just that. cosmetic.
just as you would see in a 2d autocad of a tapped hole you'll see the minor diameter as a solid and the major diameter as a hidden line.
unless you're going to cut a helix into a hole it's not going to happen. problem with that is it's completely impractical in every way shape and form. these type of features are extremely memory intensive and unless you're talking about a special acme screw thread, you're probably better off just leaving it as a cosmetic thread.
is there a purpose for needing them shown as a helix?

if the tapped surface is not showing a threaded texture, you may have a video card/driver problem.
is the texture not appearing in the part or the assy level?

check:
wow..top crowd!!
ok, so this may sound unusual but i need the holes actually threaded (physically in 3d) as well as the screw (that's not a problem).
i'm not seeing any textures in the "threads" but judging by what you're saying it wouldn't make much difference.
i've just been given my workstation with a quadro 5600 so there should be no gpu glitches so to speak.
i do rather "niche" things i.e. in this case i'm animating a camera fly-through (presentation) with the pcb etc (high-end hi-fi) opening up etc and there will be close-ups of screws um..un-screwing
surely there is a way to achieve this?! (hope i mean the threaded holes without the revolved cut?
thanks for looking into this people.

you can read in sw help about the helix, then use that as your profile for a sweep-cut, but i think you will find that your animation will turn out just fine without the overhead of actual threads.
if that's the case:
premake a hole to it's minor pitch diameter.
create a helix by creating a sketch on the top surface where the hole is cutting into, just click the hole edge and convert entities.
then create a helix using this just created circular sketch. given the correct pitch/length/revolutions, etc.
then create a plane along the hole's cross section. create a sketch on this plane of the thread geometry. make this sketch start at the start of the helix. link the sketch geometry to the helix with a pierce relation. do a swept cut using the helix and tooth cross section. if done right you should be done here. should be close enough for government work.

it is simple enough to create a helical thread, but you may not want to do it in every hole. just do the one(s) you will be "filming". you could also use the revolved cuts method mentioned in the faq eltron linked.
animation of the screw can be achieved with the solidworks motion module. a mating screw thread is not necessary.

thanks everyone, so basically there is no such feature yet i.e. to have the same threaded "tick box" as the screws get due to heavy computation?
i'm rather new to solidworks (originally from the visualisation industry) so will probably be coming here often. however, i have years of experience in rendering photorealistic images (and i mean photorealistic) and would be happy to help people here by rendering simple models free of charge (as a token of appreciation).
i pretty much always have 100ghz+ of cpu power at my disposal so (people that help) are welcome to be cheeky and get me to do some otherwise very expensive things for free.
the reason i'm offering this is because i once did a job in which i got stuck (that cost me around ￡400 in wasted time) because nobody knew/could be bothered to help (it was texturing related)...anyway
ps - i never animate or render in solidworks because it's rather inferior to 3ds max in that respect, which i had for years. solidworks was purchased about 2 months ago so i'm currently on sw premium 2009 x64 sp1 so any files should be easily readible.
thanks ppl


quote:
problem with that is it's completely impractical in every way shape and form.
what if the op was going to rapid prototype the threads?
what if the op was going to do a photo reali....
what if ...
i model actual threads for a variety of reasons.