Draw well and thread shapes

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You can draw thread and well shapes in projected view. These projected shapes are useful for creating illustrations of bolts, nuts, and threaded holes.

A thread shape and a well shape

You can draw thread and well shapes by starting from the center point of their ellipses or by specifying three points. With the 3-point method, you specify two points for the major axis of the ellipse and one for the length of the shape. The 3-point method is especially useful for adding threads to existing shapes because it uses the edges of the shape to define the thread diameter. For example, you can add threads to bolts, imported from XVL Studio or from CAD drawings, and you can remove the outer lines from the threads to prevent overlapping lines.

Left to right: An imported bolt; a thread shape is added; the outer lines of the thread shape are removed.

You can adjust the length and radius of the threads and wells by specifying values or by moving their control handles in the drawing window. You can set the distance from the first thread to the start of the object and the distance from the last thread to the end of the object.

From left to right: Default distance thread values, increased distance to the start of the object, increased distances to both start and end.

You can also adjust the pitch, which is the distance in projected space from one thread to the next. Alternatively, you can adjust the number of threads per inch.

Thread shapes with different pitch values

You can remove the outer lines (border) from thread and well shapes. After removing the outer lines, you can still adjust the properties of thread and well shapes.

To draw a thread shape from the center point of its ellipse

To add a thread to a shape by specifying three points

Adding a thread shape to an imported bolt

To draw a well shape from the center point of its ellipse

To draw a well shape by specifying three points

To modify a thread or well shape

 

To	Do the following
Set the radius	Type a value in the top portion of the Radius and length box on the property bar.
Set the length	Type a value in the bottom portion of the Radius and length box on the property bar.
Set the pitch of a thread or well shape	Click the Pitch button on the property bar, and type a value in the Pitch box. Pitch values are in millimeters.
Set the number of threads per inch for a thread or well shape	Click the Threads per inch button on the property bar, and type a value in the Threads per inch box.
Set the distance between the start of a well or thread shape and the first thread	Type a value in the top portion of the Distance from start or end box.
Set the distance between the end of a well or thread shape and the last thread	Type a value in the bottom portion of the Distance from start or end box.
Hide or show the outer lines of a thread or well shape	Click the Remove Border button .

The radius, length, and distance values are applied in projected space.

To adjust a thread or well shape by using control handles

 

To	Do the following
Adjust the shape radius	Drag the radius control handle.
Adjust the shape length	Drag the length control handle.

Using control handles to adjust the radius (left) and length (right) of a thread shape