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This should work.. part = CurrentPart() print part.FileName David

I think you may be right about needing something like AutoHotKey. When you initially open a step file, there are no entries in the IADSession.ContituentFilePaths property. That property is only populated once the step has been saved as an assembly. I don't see any way to rename the component...

You'll be in good company here - few will admit to it but I suspect there are quite a few retirees lurking on the forum. Great advantage - means that there is an abundance of experience and knowledge you can tap into. David

I'm sure this must have been covered before but I couldn't find and answer.. What is the minimum length of a sketch line? I know I can adjust the units for a part such that dimensions can be shown to 6 decimal places - so 0.000001 mm is the smallest I can easily define. Does this mean the...

No problem - The original idea for this technique was not mine but works very well when you need a 3D spiral on some otherwise difficult surface. David

I'm not sure how @idslk constructed his pyramid but the attached might help.. 1 Make a rectangular sketch (Sketch1) on the XY plane. 2 Create a new plane at some offset from the XY plane. 3 Make a second sketch on the new plane (Sketch2) 4 Make a Loft from Sketch1 to Sketch2 5 Fillet edges of...

Mine didn't freeze - but did take a loooong time to apply the boolean.

@DavidJ Thanks - I should have tried that! Looks like a good approximation of what a gear cutter might achieve. Just need Booleans and Circular Patterns adding to the API now :) David

I've been trying to decide how a crowned Worm Gear might be modelled. I tried a boolean subtract - looked promising with just one Worm being subtracted. But of course you can't do a circular pattern of a boolean - Grr. I pressed on and tried adding new planes and a couple of booleans but very...

@Cator @HaroldL Thanks both for the feedback. I'm actually thinking about building this into my utilities Add-On. The spreadsheet and part file are helpful when you only need the Worm but I guess most people will want both Worm and Worm Gear. My existing utilities Add-On can generate helical...

I'm in the process of reverse engineering the dividing head I use on the lathe and needed to draw up a couple of worms together with the mating worm gears. I thought I'd share here in case anyone else needs worms! Calculate the values using WormCalculations.xlsx and enter into the input...

Wow -fantastic - just what I need for BSB! David

If you do decide to update, I'd strongly suggest you go straight to Win 11 and bypass Win 10 altogether. I have Win 11 running on a couple of old PC's that don't meet Microsoft min specs. To date, I have had zero problems One of the machines has a Celeron J1900 processor - works just fine. In a...

Thanks David As always, lots of very helpful advice and pointers from Alibre staff and forum members. I just wonder if these standard shapes might be made even more useful.... If I use a standard shape to create an extrusion and then project that extrusion to a sketch, I see the primitive lines...

@simonb65 Nice technique.. I'll be using that! David

While working up a design for a very simple slotted arm, I found real difficulty with use of Standard Features and particularly with the Obround shape. I'm wondering how others use these features and overcome the problems I found. For the attached Arm.AD_PRT, I used the Obround shape for the...

@Max +1 for STL import functionality. As others have observed, makers often only publish designs as STL even when the design is open source. Import STL and convert to STP would be of great benefit.

@NateLiqGrav Excellent work. The script and conversion utility worked perfectly. David

@GeraldH This post might help.. Sketch Text David

@shmbry Just curiosity on my part.. Did you generate the gears yourself or were these pre-built files? I ask because viewed from one side 'front' the gear meshing looks OK but not from the reverse side. If you want accurate bevel gears, I think the guide by @Oldbelt is a good starting point...