Settings: each step explained

Created On2021-09-16

Last Updated On2024-04-10

Before you can use Lightning you need to go through this Settings window to set up your fasteners. You also use this window to make changes afterwards.

Steps in the Lightning Settings window

We split the wizard into the smallest steps possible. These are the steps and the estimated time you need for each one.
Click a link to skip to the relevant section below:

Welcome page with video (1-10 minutes)
Add folders (1 minute + some waiting time)
Choose a fastener type and thread type (2 minutes)
Create patterns (1-15 minutes)
Set thumbnails and descriptions (2 minutes)
Choose washers (1 minute)
Create Stock levels (1 minute)
Assign stock levels (1-30 minutes)
Done + summary (1 minute)

Step 1: Welcome page with video

The video (which you can also view here) shows you how to install Lightning, go through each step of the settings and how to add fasteners to your assembly.

We’ve added two buttons at the bottom: one to visit the Knowledge Base (where you are now) and one to view this video in your browser.

Videos quickly become outdated when you release a software update (the video was updated in April 2024). This Knowledge Base article will always be more up-to-date.

Step 2: Add folders

Here you can add all folders that contain your fastener parts. You can remove any subfolder or file that you don’t need.

Once you add a folder, we find all the files and read their configurations. This takes about 1 second per 100 files.

We only read in parts, but we may add support for assemblies in the future.

How to add files to Lightning after adding more files to a folder

When Lightning was set up completely and you added more files to this folder afterwards, you can add these files in this step.

Click the Refresh button to find all new files in that folder. Settings for existing files will remain unchanged.

Step 3: Choose fastener types and thread type

In this step, you choose a fastener type and a thread type for each configuration. You can apply both on the folder level, part level or configuration level.

The second and third columns turn green for valid values. You are done when the progress bar at the bottom right reaches 100%.

To help you understand the implications of the selected fastener types, we added the yellow-bordered properties at the bottom to explain how we treat each type. A bolt has a thread, has multiple length options and can have a washer, for example. A screw needs no washer, a washer has no length options, etc.

Check out supported fastener types to learn more about the properties of each fastener type.

Step 4: Create patterns

You don’t want to enter fastener data for thousands of files. So we worked hard to automate this.

We let you create patterns to extract data from four sources:

File names
Configuration names
File-level custom properties
Configuration-level custom properties

You can build these patterns using tags and normal text. We will check if your pattern matches the filename and if so, we extract data for each tag.

Step 5: Set descriptions and thumbnails

When you’re all done with extracting data, it’s time to add metadata. In this step, you can add a user-friendly description and a thumbnail image.

Select one of the built-in thumbnails or use your own image from the fastener folder.

How to add your own thumbnail

First, create a thumbnail image and save it next to your fasteners. If you use “ISO 1234” for the name of your standard in Lightning, call the file “ISO 1234.png”. The file extensions JPG, JPEG and BMP are also supported.

Now, select Get from part folder from the thumbnail dropdown. If we find your file, we show it in the Result column. If not, make sure the image is at the right location.

If you have a folder per material, each of these folders needs to have a copy of the thumbnail file.

Step 6: Choose washers

Lightning can add a washer to the bolts and nuts you drag into your assembly. See How to add a washer.

Link bolt/nut materials to washer materials

Because washer materials have different names than bolt materials, we let you match these materials. So you need to choose your preferred washer type and material here.

When one of the columns contains no text, this is because at least one bolt or one washer does not have a material assigned. This is not a problem since materials and coatings are optional.

Select the default washer standard

You choose your preferred washer standard (None is also an option) with the dropdown on the right. When you select a bolt or nut (other fastener types do not support washers), we select this washer type for you.

After you drag the bolt or nut into your assembly, we’ll add the washer underneath and mate it in place.

Step 7: Create Stock Levels

Lightning lets you store your preferred fasteners so you can guide your engineers into using more of them. We let you create preference groups and we call them Stock Levels.

Each stock level has four properties:

A score:
- We sort from low to high.
- Zero is neutral (and you can never delete the zero-score stock level) and negative numbers mean avoid.
A short name
A color for easy recognition
A user-friendly description

You can read more in the article What are Stock Levels?

Step 8: Assign stock levels

Once you have created your stock levels, you can assign them to your fastener configurations.

You can assign a stock level to a folder, file or configuration. We only store the resulting configuration data.

To make it easy to find all M7-fasteners, for example, we added extra columns with filters. Please click the Expand/collapse all on the right first so all data becomes visible, then enable a filter.

To assign a stock level, select one or multiple rows in the treeview at the top, then choose a stock level at the bottom. The level you select at the bottom will be assigned to all selected rows.

Assigning stock levels may take a while, but you can always come back later to tweak the results.

Step 9: Done + summary

When you click Next in step 8, we store all data in our database file. We show you the results in step 9.

You are now good to go. You can add fasteners to your assembly with the Add Fastener window and replace existing files with the Replace Fastener window.