Replicate: a part on every hole

A flange with eight bolt holes needs eight bolts. Rather than eight components and eight joints, Replicate places one component on every connector of a connector set: its own connector is fastened to each member of the set.

Replicate a component

1. Insert the component once, such as a screw.
2. Select it, and choose Replicate in Properties, or Insert > Replicate.
3. Choose its connector, the one that sits on each hole, such as the underside of a screw's head.
4. Choose the component and the connector set to place it on.

The component now stands on every hole. The Components group shows it once, with how many it places, such as "×4", and its occurrences fold open under it. The picture shows the desk arm's base screws: one screw component on the four holes of the base's bolts set, each set two millimetres down its hole by an Offset of -2.

Fasten: a screw in every hole at once

Insert > Fasten does the steps above for a standard screw or bolt. Select the component whose holes take the screws, or name it and its connector set, and it places a standard screw part replicated onto the set. The size comes from the holes: a hole made by its fastener, such as M8 with a normal fit, gives the screw its M8, also when a parameter gives the size. The length is the screw part's own unless you name one, and a size you name wins over the holes'. Holes drilled for a socket head (the fastener's head set to socket) have the counterbore DIN 974-1 gives it, and Fasten sinks each screw into it, its head half a millimetre below the face, when the connector set is on the face the holes open from. A component with several hole sets needs the set named. One Undo takes the fastening back. The first fasten adds the screw's part document; every one after places the same document again with its own size and length, so the bill of materials counts each size apart. Agents run it as assembly.fasten with to, and kind bolt for a hex bolt.

Adjust the copies

Under Replicated, Properties keeps what you chose, with Angle, Offset and Flip applied to every copy on its own hole's axis. The copies share the component's own parameters, so a longer screw is longer in every hole.

Because the copies follow the set, a hole added to the flange gets its screw, and a hole taken away loses it, without a change to the assembly.

Stop replicating

Stop replicating places the component once again, where its part document has it, so you can join it by hand.

A component is placed by replicate or by a pattern, not both. A replicated component has no one place, so no joint can move it or be joined to it, and it is replicated onto a component placed once.