Legal & Liability Disclaimer:
This software utility is provided solely for educational, research, and
preliminary engineering-reference purposes. It is not a substitute for
a complete bolted-joint design, a certified structural calculation, or a
code-based fastener verification. The model uses simplified elastic
bolt-group distribution in the X-Y plane and assumes identical bolts,
rigid connected parts, and linear-elastic behaviour.
The tool does not evaluate bolt preload, joint stiffness, slip-critical
behaviour, friction, prying action, bearing stress, fatigue, hole
clearance, contact compliance, non-linear geometry, fastener strength,
or applicable design-code requirements. All bolt-group designs must be
independently checked by a qualified engineer using the relevant project
requirements, loading conditions, material data, connection geometry, and
governing standards. The author and publisher accept no liability for
design errors, structural failures, personal injury, property damage, or
other consequences arising from use of this tool.
Author Note:
Bolt Pattern Master was developed by Wouter van Zoggel as a practical
engineering aid for preliminary bolt-layout generation and elastic
bolt-group load distribution. It is intended to help identify the
critical bolt in circular, rectangular, or manually defined patterns
before completing detailed joint, preload, and fastener verification.
The tool exposes bolt coordinates, group centroid, individual axial
force, in-plane shear components, resultant shear, and total bolt
resultant to make the load path transparent and easy to review.
