How to model and mark tapped holes
Question:
Is it possible to model tapped holes in Tekla Structures? I also want to see them in drawings.
Answer:
Yes it is possible in Tekla Structures 2023, in which we have new features for modeling tapped holes, exporting them to NC files, and showing them in drawings. Read more in the Release Notes.
Tekla Structures 2022 or older versions do not have an official feature for this, but there are some ways to define threaded holes in a model and get the tapped hole information into bolt marks in a drawing.
You can, for example, use the bolt user-defined attribute Bolt Comment to type in a value "Tapped hole". You can also set the Special hole type to be Oversized in the Bolt property pane and use a negative value in the Oversized field. For example, if the bolt size is 16, tolerance 2 and you use negative oversize value -4, the hole size will be 14 (16 + 2 - 4).
In drawings you get this comment visible in bolt marks when you select User-defined attribute as an element and type in BOLT_COMMENT.
The hole diameter (14) is automatically shown in the Size and Hole diameter elements in bolt marks. If you want to see the negative oversize length in bolt marks, it is possible if you use the User-defined attribute element and type in LONG_HOLE_X.
Note that with the current functionality it is not possible to get tapped hole information into NC files. To show the hole size as a decimal value, change the Units and Format setting for the Hole diameter or LONG_HOLE_X element.