Comments on: Threads on a Shaft and Cosmetic Threads

By: Lance T

Lance T — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:45:34 +0000

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.

By: Solidworks and how to insert thread - Practical Machinist - Largest Manufacturing Technology Forum on the Web

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 04:29:22 +0000

[...] a tutorial video that covers threads in depth; Threads on a Shaft and Cosmetic Threads | SolidWorker.com [...]

By: Don

Don — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 14:37:35 +0000

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.

By: Yash

Yash — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 10:21:45 +0000

In just one word…..Awesome

Really of great help man.

By: cmc

cmc — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 07:40:06 +0000

I couldn’t see the picture, please fix the page.

By: Behzad Eftekhari

Behzad Eftekhari — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 17:47:15 +0000

You saved me precious time Tim. Thank you very much indeed.

By: James

James — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:20:29 +0000

I never really thought of the cosmetic aspect of the bolts. I guess there’s nothing that is just functional.

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 03:24:38 +0000

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.

By: Ben

Ben — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 18:42:15 +0000

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.

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By: open escort

open escort — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 23:51:59 +0000

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

By: Chris Thompson

Chris Thompson — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 15:30:15 +0000

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.

By: Aldo

Aldo — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 12:47:31 +0000

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

By: Phil

Phil — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:27:28 +0000

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

By: Tim Siefers

Tim Siefers — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 14:07:36 +0000

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!!

By: Micheal Coutermarsh

Micheal Coutermarsh — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 04:17:21 +0000

Had a few viewing the site in Firefox on Linux, but I still loved the site.

By: Marc

Marc — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:57:34 +0000

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.

By: Walter Campbell

Walter Campbell — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 01:28:47 +0000

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 ……

By: Joost

Joost — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 10:59:49 +0000

Thanks for the great explanation and clearing this up!

By: Walter Campbell

Walter Campbell — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:04:02 +0000

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.

By: Marty Moenning

Marty Moenning — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 19:09:18 +0000

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

By: George

George — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:10:19 +0000

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

By: Frank

Frank — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:41:11 +0000

You should make videos for Lynda.com website
they will pay you and you will make awesome videos.

By: Junnie

Junnie — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:00:29 +0000

Thanks a lot for these tips. Very helpful. Please keep up the good work. I really appreciate your doing this.

By: Harry

Harry — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 08:11:02 +0000

yeah you assumed P and H are equal, as ity says on the wikipedia page H=sqrt(3)/2*P.
Big mistake.

By: Johnny Burke

Johnny Burke — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:55:16 +0000

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!

By: Bruce Jones

Bruce Jones — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:24:57 +0000

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

By: Jonas H

Jonas H — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:50:10 +0000

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.

By: michal

michal — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:51:14 +0000

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

By: Evan

Evan — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:54:02 +0000

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.

By: Suigmamog

Suigmamog — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:29:51 +0000

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

By: g

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:15:17 +0000

You put female threads on a male part!

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:10:25 +0000

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.

By: Mudslung

Mudslung — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 01:10:26 +0000

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.

By: husoski

husoski — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 22:52:45 +0000

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”.

By: Dustin Mathias

Dustin Mathias — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 01:32:57 +0000

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.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:09:27 +0000

Dustin,
Why won’t the “V revolve” work for 3D printing etc.?

By: Dustin Mathias

Dustin Mathias — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:49:19 +0000

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.

By: Leave It To Beaver

Leave It To Beaver — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:55:00 +0000

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.

By: A Granatelli

A Granatelli — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:13:03 +0000

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.