Mechanical · parts, machines and assembly
From two-by-fours to a chair.
Design is only half the job; the other half is making the thing. abcad adds assembly to the design process: start with the raw stock, let the machines add the parts and the nails, and read the instructions it wrote on the way. Play it, scrub it, click any piece.
Change the chair and the cut list, the nails and the build follow. Everything is written from the same data: the lists, the sheet and the build. Checks are early-sizing aids, not certifications.Open abcad
1
Start with the stock
Four 8-foot two-by-fours and a box of nails. That is the whole shopping list, and it is written from the design, not typed.
2
The saw makes the parts
The cut list packs the 15 pieces onto the boards, longest first, with an eighth of an inch lost to every cut. The mitre saw cuts them off one by one onto the pile.
3
The nailer puts it together
Side frames, stretchers, seat slats, back slats. Every nail is sized from the wood it goes through: 8d where a longer one would come out the far side, 10d into an edge, 16d into end grain. Click any part or nail to see why.
4
Read the instructions
The sheet, the cut list and the nail schedule are live views of the same build. Change the seat width or the stock length and watch them all follow.
Assembly in the design process
Materials, machines, steps
An assembly starts from raw materials. Machines add things: the saw adds parts by cutting them from the stock, the nailer adds the nails that hold them. Each step says which machine, which parts and which fasteners, so the same data plays as an animation and prints as a sheet.
- · Cut list packed onto standard stock, with the kerf and the yield
- · Fasteners sized by rule, with the rule written down
- · Checks on the result: nothing pokes through, slats spaced right, the seat at a sitting height
Mech chip in abcad
Machine parts to a drawing standard
Screws, nuts, washers, bearings, pins and steel shapes from the standard tables; holes, threads and fits with their tolerances; shafts, springs, gears and cams generated from a few numbers; balloons and parts lists that count themselves.
- · ISO 286 fits, ISO 4762 screws, ISO 1101 and ASME Y14.5 symbols
- · Shaft, bearing, spring, beam and bolt calculations as early-sizing aids
- · The Parts chip: click bricks, beams, boards and brackets together in 3D
The checks and the nail sizes are early-sizing aids for design. They are not certifications or stamped calculations.