Printing ANSI and ISO Bolts and Nuts via Alibre Atom 3D

I have been using Alibre for some time and enjoying learning how to produce items I can call useful, i.e. either for someone else or for around the home.

Now, with their newly updated release versioning, I can produce ISO and ANSI style nuts and bolts. I had to learn how to achieve this threaded components production earlier without the real tools but now I am thankful for both outcomes.

Anyway, I have been using a 3D Printer to handle printing random things and now I can produce M20 bolts and nuts when needed and to specification. See here:

and...

The video is of a K1C from Creality. It gave me trouble at first and then I configured things correctly to make it print magical parts. First off, thank you Creality for producing a fast printing machine that can handle ABS and ASA and so on...

Now, to Alibre personnel, thank you once more for producing the new versioning.

Okay. So, why are ANSI and ISO specs so important. They are basics on building parts, threaded components (and other types of fasteners in the field), that one can use to fasten things. For now, think of a glue with a specified thickness and additive percentages.

So, like with most bolts and nuts, the spec dictates what exactly is an okay size across flats and in depth. So with the bolt, the M20, our flat of the hex head should be about 30mm while the depth of the hex head is maximum and roughly at times 12.85mm.

Metric bolts come in all sorts of sizes and configurations. So, some that have a Pitch of 1.75mm, that is TPI in standard terms, may also have another type of Pitch. Pitches range and so does the size of the hex head on specified bolts.

Some types of hex heads have flanges and/or small, underneath the hex head type washers that are a part of the entire bolt.

If you can think of ways to produce bolts and nuts, trust me, someone beat you to it already. Thus, science. Only so many configurations can be made for safety, hence the spec, while ensuring a fastened, full component.

Anyway, the short video is a showing of a M20 bolt and M20 nut that fit together well and all done with some CAD software called Alibre Atom3D. Upper tiers are available from their company and they have super powers. I am an Atom3D user for now and cannot conceive how Boolean operations work like with the Pro or Expert tier.

Anyway, here is the finished ISO M20 Bolt and Nut:

and an easier to see before photo:

We, to start, create a new part on the front menu options by clicking on the Create New Part icon.

Then, we label our file, get into the main program, and then click on a Plane and then Activate 2D Sketch.

In the 2D Sketch program, we then use a circle and create an inch circle. We get out of the 2D Sketch program and get back into the 3D Modeling section of the Alibre source code. Once in the 3D Modeling section, we Boss Extrude out circle to five inches as shown below:

Next is the fun part...

As you can see in the next photo, there are many options to choose:

We need to gather our diameter and length, major diameter and minor diameter, and then once selecting the circular edge, we get a new set of options:

I picked modeled, even though this puts a hurt on the computers GPU processing, to show the actual threading of the component in question.

I have a type 1 - 8 UNC (Unified National Coarse) which is a signification for one inch in diameter and 8 TPI (Threads Per Inch). And we have our bolt at five inches in length, e.g. so our writing of the diameter - TPI * length would go like this idea.

1" - 8 * 5" and that is correct notation of a bolt outside of other data that a MTR (Material Test Report) would show off.

Now, let us see our bolt:

This is done within Alibre Atom3D and the source code/software is a very low cost purchase with a separate ability to get upgrades at about $50.00 or so...

With the latest versioning, there is a Hole Tool and an external Thread tool. So, if you are on the market for an inexpensive, feature rich CAD program, pick it.

Okay and done...

That is severely simple in their CAD software. Circle in 2D Sketch Mode to Boss Extrude in 3D Model Mode to Threading Tool in, really, its own Mode.