Threads on a Shaft and Cosmetic Threads
Thu, Oct 30, 2008
Everyone wants to put threads on a shaft. Of course, there is almost no reason to actually model threads, unless you are CNC machining from the model geometry. There is a middle ground; Cosmetic Threads. In this Video we will re-explore sweeping threads and apply a cosmetic thread as well. Will this put an end to the tread emails? I somehow doubt it. Ah, just keep emailing me; I can ignore a few more.
This video was recorded with no preparation or forethought, and it shows…
Video Player
October 30th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
I never knew there was a feature “Cosmetic Threads.” Is this a new command in SolidWorks 2009, or is it in previous versions also? Cosmetic Threads will save me a ton of time on all of my projects. And as it turns out, my threads were modeled incorrectly anyways because I used a plane that was normal to the helix. I know I emailed you in the past asking about this very issue, sorry, you and Jake do a great job there.
October 31st, 2008 at 10:55 am
Yes “Cosmetic Threads” have been in there. at least in 08 that I’v worked with. But like Tim states, having “Cosmetic Threads” shown does slow things down. So hide them when not needed. Unless you like working in turtle speed.
November 24th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
To produce a “functional” rapid prototype that actually screws into a female NPT or something similar, external threads do need to be modeled. Solid Works (along with other CAD programs), should have a library of standard threads (external and internal) to do this. It’s easy to put a call-out for the machinist, but “V” revolves and cosmetic threads won’t really cut it with 3D printing/SLS/SLA/etc.
December 11th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Dustin,
Why won’t the “V revolve” work for 3D printing etc.?
January 9th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
To be functional, threads must be spiraled. Doing a “V” revolve gives the part a nice look, but it doesn’t allow the part to be screwed into a female threaded hole. I use “V” revolves to make my call-outs to machinists more apparent. Without the spiral, an SLA/FDM/ZCORP/etc production of the part will not be functional/semi-functional.
January 10th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Dustin, I’m not sure what you mean by “spiraled”. In both Solidworks terms, and in ordinary geometry, a spiral is a plane figure. If you need a variable-radius helix, that can be done in the helix feature. There’s a nice demo on this site, referred to in this video, that shows how to use this for male thread lead-ins and lead-outs. See http://www.solidworker.com/?p=21 for details.
The same ideas can be used to change the cut depth along the shaft, if that’s all you need to do to “spiral” the thread. However, if the thread profile has to change along the shaft then you are, well uh, “screwed”.
January 25th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
There is a setting in Options/Document Properties/ Detailing… Shaded Cosmetic Threads (check box) that controls the “View” of these threads while in Shaded mode!
Thanks for these excellent videos.
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:10 pm
I’m glad you decided to post this even with the “errors” you mentioned while creating the thread cut profile. It was interesting to see how you repair sketches. And let’s all be honest here…we don’t always get it right the firt time!!
Great clip.
March 13th, 2009 at 11:15 am
You put female threads on a male part!
March 24th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Excellent site http://www.solidworker.com and I am really pleased to see you have what I am actually looking for here and this this post is exactly what I am interested in. It’s taken me literally 2 hours and 29 minutes of searching the web to find you (just kidding!) so I shall be pleased to become a regular visitor
March 27th, 2009 at 9:54 am
Is it possible to include the parameters of a cosmetic thread in a design table. I’m creating a design table for standard screw sizes my coworkers often use in their assemblies but cannot figure out how to include the diameter and length of the cosmetic thread in the table.
April 22nd, 2009 at 1:51 pm
hey Tim,
love your tutorials – they really help me. but i think i found a small mistake in this one concerning dimensioning. you’ve taken, from the picture, h/4 and h/8 as the distance between the vertical lines and the top of the triangle, but you also took h=p – as far as i remember from school in such triangle h=p*(3^1/2)/2 – am i right?
take care
July 1st, 2009 at 10:50 am
Thanks for the thread video!
I am modeling bolts with design tables and there is a bug in Solid Works (confirmed by SolidWorks) that gives problem for longer threads with variable diameter (approx limitation: 5inch with pitch 1/13). Is there any good work around for this? Right now my best alternative is to use constant diameter and use the cutout you showed in the end of the thread, but this don’t look as good as I want to.
July 6th, 2009 at 9:24 am
Tim,
Nice job, cosmetic threads for show, geometric ones for ABS models all in the same video, great job. Leave the mistakes in there, they make the reat of us feel human as well
Bruce
July 13th, 2009 at 7:55 am
Fantastic video! I was taught about cosmetic threads in college but didnt really understand their workings until I saw you modelling a geometric one. Superbly explained and the mistakes were heartwarming! Thanks a million!
September 4th, 2009 at 3:11 am
yeah you assumed P and H are equal, as ity says on the wikipedia page H=sqrt(3)/2*P.
Big mistake.
October 11th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Thanks a lot for these tips. Very helpful. Please keep up the good work. I really appreciate your doing this.
October 27th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
You should make videos for Lynda.com website
they will pay you and you will make awesome videos.
November 19th, 2009 at 12:10 am
I’ve seen on SLD 2008 that when you select an edge,or a face it comes out with a neon-fluorecent hilight color,and the background also reflects the part, hows that, i just cant find that option.
thanx
March 21st, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Very nice video..
in the thread video, i learned several other things, and i want to learn more.
if you have a book or if you have other videos, i would be very interested. if you sell a dvd with videos, i’d like to buy a copy.
thanks again
April 16th, 2010 at 7:04 pm
I stayed with you up until you created your triangle to cut the threads. You did so many things that I did not understand (not counting your mistakes) and you did them too fast. My teacher for my solidworks class says to just use help with anything but I do not understand the help period.
April 17th, 2010 at 5:59 am
Thanks for the great explanation and clearing this up!
April 17th, 2010 at 8:28 pm
I keep watching this video over and over again but there is too much that I do not understand. How do you pierce,how do you set the two sides equal,what is the main advantage of using construction lines,how do you make threads? You started the first part of the video slow enough that most people should be able to build a cylinder and add a helix but then ……
June 16th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Great video for intermediate SW users like myself, even the mistakes are helpful (I’m familiar with some, but you’ll save me time with the ones I haven’t seen or figured out yet). Thanks.
There’s a special place for spam posters like TAaud above and they won’t like it.
June 26th, 2010 at 11:17 pm
Had a few viewing the site in Firefox on Linux, but I still loved the site.
July 21st, 2010 at 9:07 am
Overall, these videos have been exceptionally enlightening for a SolidWorks newbie, such as myself. While the technique demonstrated in this video is solid, the dimensioning isn’t. First, the screw was given interal threads; whereas the flats on the thread peaks should have been narrower than the flats on the thread “valleys.” Second, as pointed out in an earlier post, the Pitch is not equivalent to the Height so the dimensioning needs an extra step with some trig. Finally, when the initial pierce relationship was deleted, it wasn’t verbally noted. It took me a while to catch that step which was key to making this procedure work about 50 seconds later. Thanks for an otherwise greatly helpful video!!
August 17th, 2010 at 5:27 pm
Using solidworks 2010 proves to be a real pain when trying to create the ‘normal to’ plane. You have to actually select the end point on the curve BEFORE activating the ref. plane command. Otherwise the program will not select a normal to curve reference plane as shown in the tutorial
September 12th, 2010 at 7:47 am
Great video man! i knew the program had to have cosmetic external threads… but i guess dassault really managed to put the option quite hidden
however, its very generous from you to take the time for this, thanx
September 14th, 2010 at 10:30 am
Is it possible to add the thread callout annotation (note) associated with the external cosmetic thread to a design table? If so, how is this done?
For more information, please refer to this topic: Adding annotation (cosmetic thread note) to Design table? (https://forum.solidworks.com/message/179896#179896) on the SolidWorks forum.
September 27th, 2010 at 6:51 pm
I lost this blog and luckily I found it again. at this time I’m at my library I added this to favorites so I can re-read it at a better time thank you
October 22nd, 2010 at 10:16 pm
Plenty of successful thus. My accomplice and i cope with book-marked the place.
October 31st, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Thank you so much for this. I am in the process of teaching myself SolidWorks. I have had training in and know how to use Inventor but after seeing so many more jobs in SolidWorks, I felt I should know it as well. Things are similar enough to Inventor to find my way around, but things are also different enough to throw a monkey wrench into my progress sometimes. One of the biggest examples of this is threaded shafts, pins, etc. I had been getting frustrated at what I thought was SolidWorks’ inability to show male threads (unless it is from the parts library of course); I had no idea that there was indeed a way to do it.
Again, thanks for this and I will definitely be checking some of your other tutorials out in the future.
December 7th, 2010 at 10:24 pm
Super video! Very informative and descriptive. I only wish I had found it sooner. What I have been playing with for a while now, is the best way to accurately model a dry-seal taper thread, such as LP/NPT, EUE, NUE, Csg; common threads in the oilfield industry. NPT is no problem (as the thread profile is “flat”), but threads with a rounded crest such as EUE, NUE, Csg (and numerous others) are much trickier to model, efficiently anyways.
March 16th, 2011 at 10:20 am
I never really thought of the cosmetic aspect of the bolts. I guess there’s nothing that is just functional.
April 30th, 2011 at 12:47 pm
You saved me precious time Tim. Thank you very much indeed.
September 6th, 2011 at 2:40 am
I couldn’t see the picture, please fix the page.
October 18th, 2011 at 5:21 am
In just one word…..Awesome
Really of great help man.
November 4th, 2011 at 9:37 am
Very helpful video. Any chance of adding a video for pipe threads. I can follow the video, however I cant seem to conduct the same on NPT thread.
February 2nd, 2012 at 10:45 am
I agree with Dustin. We use rapid prototypes extensively, and the cosmetic thread is of little use to us in creating functional parts. I have been disappointed by the level of difficulty involved in creating physical threads in SW.