Drawing External Thread

[brengine]

I don't know if I've seen this mentioned before or not, but I stumbled on a pretty good way to have external thread show up in the drawing the way I'd like it, and still be parametric.

What I did was draw the component with the thread portion (drawn solid) drawn at the minor diameter. Then, as a separate body (i.e. multi-body) I made extruded/rotated a cylindrical tube shape from the minor dia. to the major dia. This gives me all the break lines between where the thread ends and the same diameter solid portion begins, displays hidden lines in the drawing like I want them to look, and it is parametric (unlike SW's native Cosmetic External Thread). Plus you can add chamfers or relief to the solid model as needed.

Seems to be a pretty good and easy solution to this long time short-coming of a solid model and displaying external thread in a drawing...at least so far for what I want...

Ken

 

[fcsuper]

You can use Cosmetic thread on an external surface that same as it can be applied to an internal surface. Additionally, you can add a callout to default for that cosmetic thread which will automatically show up in the drawing (though it will likely require some editing). Is there a reason you aren't using cosmetic threads for this?

Matt Lorono
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources
Co-moderator of Solidworks Yahoo! Group
and Mechnical.Engineering Yahoo! Group

 

[brengine]

Is there a reason you aren't using cosmetic threads for this?

Mainly because they're not totally parametric. I seem to always have to be manually updating or tweaking something or other with them. I don't even know that this other method will be any easier, just wondering if anyone else had any other thoughts.

Ken

 

[fcsuper]

Well, from your description, I consider the multiple body method both inventive and troublesome. The multiple solution may confuse others looking at and using your model.

Matt Lorono
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources
Co-moderator of Solidworks Yahoo! Group
and Mechnical.Engineering Yahoo! Group