Bolt and Screw Creator

Free Utility BoltGen plug-in is now available in Resources-Mechanical Design. Runs on any version of Rhino.

Program creates accurate Metric and English machine screws and bolts, any length.

Makes Sockethead Capscrews, Flat head Machine screws, Flat head Capscrews, Pan heads, and Hex Heads, or just threads without heads.

Head drives include Torx, Philips, Allen Hex and Hex wrench.

Some small head details (fillets) have not been implemented to keep the file sizes small, but can easily be created if desired.

Regards, Ray McKaig

Comment

Comment by Ray McKaig on June 15, 2017 at 12:51am: I have translated BoltGen and a companion program CopyBoltToSurface into Python so that it can run on Apple computers. Since I do not have an Apple computer to test it on, would anyone be interested in trying it? The main drawback seems to be no drop-down menu, but the command line works. The programs seem to run well on Windows and hopefully on Apple computers as well. Contact me at feedback@mcvanaero.com.

Also the Windows version BoltGen plugin v1.82 now has (yuck) Google translated manuals for all 7 languages. I'm hoping for help to improve them.

In addition, a new command CopyBoltToSurface will place bolts normal to surface angles.

Download at http://www.mcvanaero.com/resources.html

Comment by Ray McKaig on June 10, 2017 at 1:45am: Sorry I've been negligent in following this website.

New functionality includes manuals, extra languages supported (English, French, Chinese, Italian, Czech, German, and Spanish) and a bolt placement tool that aligns bolts on surfaces.

Also, I'm working on cross-platform conversion for Mac Rhino.

Download at http://www.mcvanaero.com/resources.html

Comment by Ray McKaig on November 17, 2015 at 5:47pm: Hi again John.

I've rebuilt the BoltGenGUI program to correct the error "Failed to get RhinoScript". Apparently Rhino's latest release takes extra time to load, so I have added a delay on the Rhino launch code that fixes the problem in my machine. Please try the new BoltGenGUI release 1.77G from my website mcvanaero.com/resources and let me know if it fixes the problem for you.

Regards, Ray

Comment by Ray McKaig on October 25, 2015 at 8:01am: Hi John.

You must have a corrupted Rhinoceros. Everything depends on RhinoScript running for both the plug-in and GUI. It is the engine that performs Rhino commands directly.

You might try reinstalling Rhino, or talking with the Rhinoceros team for support. I have found in the past that they are very responsive and helpful. A contact email for them is:

McNeel Support a href="mailto:support@mcneel.com">support@mcneel.com>

Over 22,600 users of BoltGen are having no issues. Your fix should be pretty straightforward and the Rhino support team should have the solution you need.

I wish you the best of luck resolving your problem.

Regards,

Ray McKaig

Comment by John Carpenter on October 24, 2015 at 12:55pm: I installed the plugin as instructed. The BoltGen menu item appears in the Rhino work space but when I run the commands nothing happens.

I then tried installing the GUI and, after it was installed, I attepmted to run the program but it gave me an error stating "Failed to get RhinoScript".

Running Rhino 5 64-but SR12

Any suggestions?

Comment by Aleksandar Dimitrov on April 28, 2015 at 2:04pm: Ray,

thanks so much for the BoltGen plug-in. Such a great job!!

Best regards

Comment by Ray McKaig on February 8, 2014 at 10:45pm: Hi Ed.

The program is available on my website. There are two versions of the program:

1. Rhino plugin

2. External VB6 GUI (Graphical User Interface) that is a small stand-alone program and sends commands to the Rhino program using Rhino as a graphics engine.

I include both since some users are having trouble installing the plugin.

These programs are available at this link: Home (http://www.mcvanaero.com)

in the Resources page. It is now at version 1.73 that corrects an occasional error that caused it to sometimes fail creation.

Regards, Ray

Comment by Ed Porter on February 8, 2014 at 5:55pm: Hi, I'm new the group ....... where do I go to download BoltGen.zip? Thanks

Ed

Comment by Tom Downey on September 6, 2013 at 4:28pm: Hi there, I absolutely love this plugin, it's been quite useful in trying to prototype some custom bolts for POP Displays.

I've run into a snag and I think it's more of a lack of knowledge on how nuts and bolts work on my part but wanted to see if I could get someone's advice. I've been trying to model a hobby knife that will use OLFA breakaway blades, and then 3D print it using a makerbot replicator 2. The threading on the bolt part works fine, but I can't seem to make a nut that functions. At first I was just cutting the threads out of a cylinder, but that didn't work at all. I then realized that I needed some slop int the nut's threads and found out that the plugin came with a thread scaling command. My problem now is hat I have no idea what I need to scale it to in order for it to function. I've tried several different values but no luck. And searching on google is proving quite difficult since thread is a very common term im not having any luck finding something relevant. I'm trying to make a 5/16 - 20 bolt and nut, does anyone have any idea what I should scale the nut to?

Comment by Ray McKaig on August 6, 2013 at 12:09pm: Hi Brandon. Thanks for your feedback, I really appreciate it. Regards, Ray McKaig

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