Create and calculate bolt connections

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This course will provide an overview of the Bolted Connections Component Generator.

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The Bolted Connection Generator is one of the Design Accelerators that Autodesk Inventor has, for its users.

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You can access these tools from the Design tab within any assembly that you're working on.

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These cannot be used when you're working with just a simple part file.

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So once you're working with an assembly, the Bolt Connection tool allows you to automatically add bolts,

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nuts, washers and they're given through or blind holes to the components in your assembly.

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So rather than add in the parts and apply the constraints, and the parameters manually,

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you can simply choose a location and then you can pull in the hardware.

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So the fastener, the washer, the nut, and apply those to the assembly and save them with the assembly automatically.

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In this environment, you can also size your fasteners manually,

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or based off of the loads and materials that are required.

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So the Calculation tool that's built into the Generator allows you to validate,

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that your design is going to be safe and then automatically update those fasteners based off of the results that you create.

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So this is the workflow that you'll typically use when you're working with the Bolted Connection Generator.

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You have to start with either sketch points, work points,

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or three dimensional holes that will indicate the center point or the location of your bolt connections.

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So once of those have been added into one of the components in the assembly, then you can activate the Bolted Connection Generator.

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You can then choose the hole type, whether that's going to be a through hole, which will go through all components that you've selected,

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or a blind hole, which is typically used when you're working with a threaded hole that is not going to go all the way through.

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You can then choose your placement.

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So this is how the actual hole is going to be located, whether that is a linear placement relative to two edges,

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or it could be concentric to an existing edge.

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You can also make it on point, which means you're choosing an existing sketch point or work point to apply the connection to.

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Or you can choose an existing hole.

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So all of these, except for the By Hole option are actually going to automatically create the Through hole,

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for the given fastener automatically when you go to place it.

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Next, you're going to select your starting plane where the hole and the fastener begin your locations,

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your termination, and everything required, for that.

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You can then choose your Hole type, whether it is an Inch, or a Metric type thread.

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Once that's all been defined, you can then select a fastener from the Content Center from the library that's provided.

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And then after you've placed all of your bolts, you can use the Calculation tool to validate your diameter,

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number of holes, even the material that's being used for the bolts or the plates.

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So one of the selections you'll need to make is the Hole Depth Type.

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There's really only two options. There's Through All and there's Blind.

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The Through All selection is great when you're working with nut and bolt assemblies,

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where the hole is going to pass all the way through the material, and a nut will be inserted on the other side of the hole.

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The Blind selection is when you're typically using a tapped hole with a screw, that will be threaded into it.

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This is a scenario where the hole will be given a depth value, as opposed to going all the way through the entire plate.

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There are four different ways that you can locate the center of the hole that will be used for your fastener.

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If you have not created a sketch, but you know the dimensions where you want the center of your hole, the Linear option is really nice.

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You could just choose two edges, and then the corresponding dimension from each.

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You can choose Concentric.

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If you'd like your hole to be related to the center of an existing edge,like a filet or a radius,

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you can place your hole on an existing sketch point or work point.

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This is really nice, if you have already added a sketch into a component, it makes the process very simple.

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The last option is By Hole. This is where you can choose an existing three dimensional hole.

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So if you already added in your holes, while designing your part or designing your assembly, or subassembly,

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you can just choose that existing hole rather than recreating a new sketch.

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So once you've located where you want your Fastener to be placed, and you've chosen a Hole type,

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then you can go to the Content Center and select from a really large library of bolts,

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whether they are Hex Head, Socket, Round Head, Countersunk.

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You can choose the type of bolt that you would like to use.

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Then you can choose what washer you'd like to add in, whether it's a spring, locking washer, plain washer, and then a nut.

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If you are using a through hole, you can choose the nut that you'd like to add to that stack as well.

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So all of these selections come from the Content Center, and you can filter through and find the type that meets your application best.

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The Bolted Connection Component Generator also contains this Calculation tool.

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There's four different type of calculators for your bolts.

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There's one that will calculate an appropriate bolt diameter based off of your axial,

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and tangential forces, as well as the number of bolts being used and the materials and safety factor.

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It'll give you a recommended bolt diameter and then you can automatically populate that change to the design,

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if you decide to make that adjustment.

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The other calculator is a number of bolts calculator,

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which lets you determine how many bolts you need based off of your forces and materials.

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In the inverse of that, you have the Bolt Material calculator, which based off of bolt diameter and number of bolts,

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determines what the appropriate material property should be to achieve safety.

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And then lastly Check calculation allows you to put in all your parameters,

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and then verify that there aren't any issues with the forces on the bolt.

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And it can also check for thread pressure as well. And it'll give you a warning if you've exceeded your safety factor.

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Keep in mind with all of these calculators, you can customize the material for your plates,

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and your bolts, as you're going through these checks.

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And just a few tips here that can be helpful when you're getting started with the Bolted Connection Generator.

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You want to make sure that the Content Center is installed and configured on your computer or on your network,

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so that when you go to insert components, you'll have that full library for the generator tool to use.

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So you have to have that installed prior to working with these.

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When you're adding your bolt connections,

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you can actually just click on a three dimensional arrow that's going to show up at the end of the bolt.

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If you'd like to resize and add length to your bolt,

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you can also use it to increase the depth of a Blind Hole or Through Hole as well.

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And then lastly, when you open up the generator tool, keep in mind it is going to use the most recent setting that was applied.

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So whatever bolt and length that you had chosen before will automatically be selected.

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If you want to just start with a clean slate, when you go to access the tool,

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just hold the control key when you click on the icon and it will start with a default form when you're using the generator.

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In this exercise, we will be creating Bolt Connections with the Inventor Design Accelerator.

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So for this exercise, we will be working with this Belt-Driven reducer assembly once again.

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What we need to do in this exercise is attach this gear housing shown in gray to the blue stand behind it.

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So you'll notice a sketch has already been created in that part.

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We'll be adding in the Bolt Connections to those sketch points, and sizing them from there.

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So I'll start by going to the Bolted Connection tool from the Design tab.

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This is going to open up my dialog box here, where I can choose the type of hole that I'd like to create,

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whether it's Through or Blind, which would be for like a Tapped Hole.

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I can also choose the Placement, whether that's an existing hole Concentric to an edge,

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linear placement (like a pattern) or On point.

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So I'll use On point, since I already have a sketch point created, then I can choose the Type which is going to be a Blind hole.

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And then for my Start Plane, I'll choose the front face of the housing.

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My point, I'll go ahead and select the center point of that top sketch.

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And then for my Blind Start Plane, this is where the Tapped Hole or the Blind Hole is going to start.

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So since I'm not going all the way through, I'm going to be measuring from the start face, which will be this front face of the stand.

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Once that's been done, you'll notice there is a red arrow here where I can adjust the thread depth manually,

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and it adjusts all of these holes in the pattern at the same time.

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So if I click on this arrow and I drag it forward, I can type in a specific value.

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If I double click on the arrow, it opens up the box where I can put in a value. Let's say, 0.15.

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I can hit the check mark, and then I have an exact tapped depth for that Blind hole.

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Next thing I'm going to do here where it says thread is I'm going to change the diameter here,

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from 0.25 to a number 10 or a 0.19 inch diameter a hole.

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And the fastener will be sized to that.

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And then now here in the right hand side of this dialog box is where I can add in the specific fasteners.

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So the screw, the washer and then a nut if necessary. So I'll go ahead and click on the option where it says "Click" to add a fastener.

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So I'll click on that gray box. This is going to load the Content Center where I can pull specific shapes.

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So you'll see bolts, hex head bolts, socket head bolts in the drop down category.

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So I'm going to go ahead and choose Socket Head Bolts.

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And I'm going to kind of look through here. I'm going to grab this Hexagon Socket Head Cap Screw.

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So that brings in the number 10 Socket Head Cap Screw, brings in here gives me a little preview in light green.

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And then if I want to add a washer, I'll just Click to add a fastener again.

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I'm going to choose an Internal Tooth Lock Washer from the top left.

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It loads in the washer, and then I can go ahead and click "Ok" at the bottom here.

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And this will add in all of these fasteners as well as all of the washers to my design, and I can preview the 3D model.

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So I click, OK. It's going to go ahead and create the Blind hole that goes through the housing, and then into the stand behind it.

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It also loads in those Socket Head Cap Screws, number 10s,

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and the washer and it adds them to all of the point locations in that sketch pattern.

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So now that I have my screws added in,

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I can then go back and run some calculations to make sure that they are sized appropriately and then update my design from there.

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In this exercise, we will be using the Bolt Connector Calculator tool to properly size these connections.

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For this exercise, we'll continue working with this Belt-Driven reducer assembly.

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We've already added in the Socket Head Cap Screws in the prior exercise.

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So if you locate the Socket Head Cap Screws on the browser, on the left-hand side,

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you can right-click on the "Hexagon Socket Head Cap Screw number 10s".

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And if you right-click and go to "Edit using Design Accelerator", it'll open it back up in the tool.

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So now I have my Component Generator here. I've already generated the preview of those eight individual screws.

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What I'm going to do next is perform a calculation to determine if the diameter that I've chosen is sufficient.

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So I chose a 0.19(#10) sized screw.

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If I click on the "Calculation" tab at the top of the Generator, I can then perform one of these four calculations.

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So I can check the diameter, I can check the number of bolts being used, the material,

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and just a general check calculation to see if any of these values and the results exceed the allowable, for instance, the safety factor.

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What I'll do first is I'm going to just check my diameter, and see if it's sufficient. So I'll change this to bolt diameter design.

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I can then put in a series of values.

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So for my Maximum Axial Force down here, that's Fa, I'm going to put in 1000 lbforce,

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Maximum Tangent Force, I will put in 500 lbforce.

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I'll leave the other values as is right here.

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You can change the Required Safety Factor if you need something larger than two, but two is usually sufficient.

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Over here, you'll see Plates Material and you'll also see Bolt Material at the bottom.

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If you want to check what material is being assumed for the bolt,

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you can click this check box right here and that will actually open up the Materials library,

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where I could switch the material to a different grade of steel.

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In this case, I'm just using a Steel 1015 grade, should be realistic for this example.

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So I'll leave that as is. I'll click "Cancel".

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Those properties can be manually changed from this window as well.

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What I'll do next is for Bolt right here where I see a Number of bolts, I'm going to change it from 1 to 8.

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So there's going to be 8 of these. So rather than use the calculator to determine that I've already put in 8 bolts.

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So that's how many I will use in this case. I can now click on "Calculate" at the bottom.

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And based off of these forces, these materials and the current diameter of the bolt, it'll let me know how I'm doing.

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So I'll click "Calculate".

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So after the Component Generator has performed its calculation,

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what you'll notice for the results right here is for D for diameter, it chooses 0.25.

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So it has increased the diameter of the bolt to take on the forces that I have entered into the calculator.

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And now if I go back to the Design tab, the top left, you'll see it's chosen a 1/4 inch,

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and it also shows a new 1/4-28 Socket Head Cap Screw,

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as well as a 1/4 inch Internal Tooth Lock Washer.

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I'm all good with that. So I'll go ahead and click "Ok".

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And it will update the bolts automatically using the Bolt Generator tool, just like we used before.

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It will also update the size of the holes in the housing cover as well as the stand right there.

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So once it's done with that, you'll now see those new Socket Head Cap Screws and right down here in the browser,

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you'll see it's a 1/4 inch 28 UNF screw that's been added in.

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And now if I'd like to confirm that the rest of the values are sufficient,

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I can right click on that component from the browser once again, and go to "Edit using Design Accelerator".

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And I'm going to just do a check calculation this time. So I'll go back to the Calculation tab.

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My values are already in here, but I'm going to change the type right here to check calculation leaving everything as is.

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And then I'll click on "Calculate".

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And then if I'd like a quick report, I can go to the very top right here where it says "Results", I'll click a little notepad.

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And this pulls up in my web browser.

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Just a summary of what was done, which you can print out, tells me all of the key values here.

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And at the very bottom, it says "Calculation indicates design compliance".

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So I should be good to go with this current configuration. So I will click "Ok".

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And then I'll go ahead and save this model for future use.