Please,
(Method: old bolting Method)
When does PDMS use Length attribute to get the bolt length and when does it use the Nstdblength attribute?
I deduce that pdms uses it with wafer items. Is that true?
Isodraft goes to the boltref of Flange 1 of the joint, it then takes the value of length of the Sbol and divides by two.
It repeats this for the second flange in the joint, again taking half the value of the length.
It then finds the length of any wafer items that may be present.
All the derived length values are then added together (1/2 length 1 + 1/2 length 2 + any wafer length)
The Nstdblength list is then searched to find a match for the total length. If an exact match is not found it takes the first entry greater than the calculated length.
It is eventually down to you what entries are available in the Nstdblength table
You can change the length of the Sbol as much as you wish BUT you still need an entry in the table to match.
As far as I know, when there is nothing between the two flanges but just a gasket, and the two flanges have the same boltref, then it takes the length attribute and doesn't go to the Nstdblength table.
I am talking about the OLD method.....
It needs to use nstdblength, because it takes half the length from the boltref of each flange and they are not neccessarily identical.
So if the length of flange 1 sbol is 3" and the length for flange 2 sbol is 3.1/2" then the bolt length for the joint should be 3.1/4".
Just taking length of Sbol 3" would be too short and 3.1/2" too long