Bolt and nut library free for rhino recommendations please

Hi,
V5
Where can I get metric and imperial nuts and bolts from, free, for rhino 3D compatability ?

i.e. not as a mesh if poss.

Steve

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steve, have you tried the boltgen plug in?

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Lots of the McMaster Carr products have free 3d files associated with them. STEP and IGES can both be imported into Rhino.

Here’s an example.

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Steve,
I use the bolt gen plug in and it is wonderful. You can get it at food for Rhino.
Here is an image of a bench shear I designed using bolt gen.

All my best … Danny

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Hi Danny and folks,
had to take a different route, the ‘need’ goal post moved but now need a couple of bolts, and this bolt gen sounds promising., as does McMaster-Carr.
How did you do that visual Danny, I am still in the land of shaded view and its not reality as in your view both vertical walls in the lower arm would be same colour, the upper facing surface would be dark (contrary to reality) and the underside would be bright. Not sure why it was designed for light sources from below !
I also see a weld I think, again a mystery area for making such.

I need also aviation bolts nuts etc,such as Simpsons RAF WW2, any sources welcome.

If I populate a model with such I need to use instance method I presume, as Rhino goes slow very quickly with repeat shapes.
One can change bolt sizes easily but also I would need to have it alter the holes as well, this needs a different thread to discuss …ha ha Pun :slight_smile:
Regards
Steve

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I used Brazil to render this it gives near photo quality, bit of a learning curve but a wonderful software. To get this image if I remember correctly I used a dome light and two spot lights, dome behind and above. Spots on on each side slightly above and out front so I could adjust the angle. I quick render until I like the looks. If you use raytraced with neon its pretty fast and gives a good idea of your final results.
Regarding boltgen its made for Rhino not sure about Mcmaster-Carr.
When I do a bolt for a drawing I will duplicate it eight or ten times, just click on the bolt and start to move it then tap the ALT key you will see a + sign move it a bit and un-click this is super quick and easy with no delay.
If you want to talk more about this we can visit in email.
Hope this helps … Danny
P.S. I use Rhino/Brazil for anything and everything this is an image I drew to give me an idea for a facet cut on a glass cane.

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Hi lopacki (Danny)
I will consider your offer when I get a time I can apply a day to it, at the mo i am against the clock, as I need to get into understanding such better visuals, though I get the feeling it involves money to get the progs,

duplicating bolts or rivets without instance makes my rhino go very slow.

Steve

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mcmaster carr is the best possible choice here. It even has a part number you can use to add these parts IRL>

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WARNING… use of it has caused file to go HUGE and save in a minute versus seconds before, polygon count is way over the top. Mesh is far too fine.
see Effect of meshes on save time Rhino V5 v V7 - #18 by Steve1

3million quads in a bolt.
nathans reply and the brown bolt.

Steve

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Hi @Steve1,

I haven’t had any trouble with the McMaster Carr downloads I’ve done. Could you provide a link to the specific bolt that causes you problems? I’d like to take a look at it.

Thanks
Jeremy

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Hi Jeremy -

There’s nothing wrong with the models that were downloaded. It’s the custom render mesh settings that are causing a massive amount of triangles in Steve’s file.
-wim

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um… quads?

the Mcmaster parts are step files… they are usually pretty small.

did you import it as an obj? If so, dump that and use step or iges.

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