Vis Automations · In-app tool, Automation Scripts menu

Fastener Stacks

Finds every fastener in an assembly, groups touching fasteners into stacks, groups identical stacks into families, and shows each family as a colored Vis group you can select.

Verification passing on Vis 2606.0 build 26134 + 2606.2610 · 2026-10-29 · repo tc-vis-automation 9f1b0af · Goals 1 to 6 verified from inside Vis and headless (16/16); the bonus goals are not started.

The Fastener Stacks panel beside Vis, launched from Menu › Automation Scripts. Select group from one picked fastener: 204 fasteners in 51 stacks selected. File name masked. Click to zoom.

What was asked

In a large structural assembly, find the fasteners, work out which ones form a stack (pin and collar, bolt, washer and nut), group stacks that are the same, and make each group visible and selectable in Vis.

What it does

One Automation Scripts entry, fastener_stacks_panel.py, opens a small always-on-top window beside Vis with four buttons. It stays open, so you can pick a fastener and press Select stack or Select group as often as needed.

  • Analyze model: find fasteners, stacks and families; one Vis group and one color per family; JSON, CSV and an HTML report.
  • Select stack: expand the picked fastener(s) to the whole stack.
  • Select group: expand to every stack in the same family.
  • Clear: remove this tool’s groups and restore the original materials.
1352
fasteners found on a wing flap
1063
stacks
27
families, one colored Vis group each
16/16
headless end-to-end checks pass

Not started: the bonus goals, and structural plates in stacks (a stack lists its fastener parts, not the plates they pass through). See Open questions.

One nutplate stack isolated in the live Vis session, drawn in its family’s green.
One stack from each of the 6 largest families, each in its own color (headless test, zoomed).
Instances, fastener rules, stacks by bounding-box contact, families by part-number signature, then one colored Vis group per family.