Bolts, pegs and shoes

A fastener is part of the design, not a part to cut. A bolt, a threaded rod, an oak peg, a screw or an anchor drills one hole in every part on its line, and those holes move together when you change the design. Plates and post shoes are listed as hardware too.

Add a bolt at a crossing

1. In Fitting, select the two members that cross.
2. In the crossing’s panel on the right, choose Add fastener. A 12 mm bolt goes through both parts at the middle of the crossing.
3. Select it in the 3D view or under Fasteners in the outliner to change its kind, diameter, length or finish.

At a member’s end the same button adds a screw through the member it lands on, into the end grain.

Point at a face

Press ; then F, or choose Insert → Fastener, and click a long face of a member. A 12 mm bolt goes in there, square to the face, through that part and every part lying against it, and is selected so you can change it. Press Esc to go back to selecting. Move the parts together and the bolt goes with them.

Pegs and bolts in a joint you design

In the joint designer, a bore has a Fastener in the hole choice. Pick a peg or a bolt and every place the joint is used gets one. A peg at a member’s end can take a drawbore: the hole in the tenon is set that many millimetres toward its shoulder, so driving the peg pulls the joint tight.

A peg or an anchor can stop in the timber: it is drilled from one side to its length and no further, as a peg driven into a post from one face or the pin of a post shoe going up into the post’s end. Switch it on in the fastener’s panel and set the length; an anchor’s embedment in the foundation does not count toward the hole.

Change or leave out the fastener at one place without changing the joint: select it and edit it there, or choose Leave out at this joint. Back to the joint undoes that.

Length and holes

The length is worked out from the stack: the timber it passes, the washers, the nut and a little thread past it, rounded up to the next length the series comes in. A peg stands 10 mm proud on each side. You can set a length by hand; the panel shows what the stack needs.

Bolt and rod holes are 1 mm wider than the bolt. A peg’s hole is its own diameter. The holes reach the machine files like any other drilling.

Opgepast

A fastener that no longer passes the parts it was placed through, runs out past its series’ longest length, or breaks out of a part’s side is a warning on those parts. Fasteners are not a strength check: their capacity is not assessed.

The hardware list

Export the Hardware list (CSV) or open the technical specification for a sheet of every fastener, washer and nut, counted, with the parts each one goes through. Fasteners are never in the cutting list.

Gerelateerde pagina's

• Fitting workspace: Build a 3D assembly of members in Fitting. Every member becomes a part, and the joints where members meet are worked out for you.
• Design your own joint: Design a joint for crossing members or a member's end: housings, tenons, knife plates, pegs and more, sized from the timber, with a live 3D preview.
• Export files: Export a PDF cutting list, CSV, technical drawings, a project backup and BTLx, BVN, BVX or BTL machine files. See what blocks an export.
• Drilling: Add a round hole to a face of a part: square or at an angle, through or to a depth, with an optional countersink. Fields, defaults and machine export.
• Building systems: Start a project from a building system, such as a flat roof on posts, and shape it with a few settings. The members, joints and parts follow every change.
• Groups and components: Organise a large frame into groups, open one to work on it on its own, and reuse an assembly as a component whose copies stay the same.