HI all,

I am trying to manually put in two sets of threaded nuts and bolts into a larger assembly in order to determine if the forces will create stresses on the bolts that will potentially cause them to be stripped/fail. I am aware of bolt connectors, but I would like to use the bolts I have for this simulation. I also was having trouble with the bolt connections because I do not have a circular edge where the bolt head would be placed. 

I am having trouble mating the threaded nut to the bolt so that there is no interference and that the nut is also touching the bottom face of a plate in the assembly. 

I am applying two main forces to the largest part of the assembly that the bolts are trying to keep stationary and a clamping force/axial load on the bolts. My fixtures are on the sides of the bottom plate and in one simulation, I tried to fix the bottom of the screws because they were the only parts moving freely.

The assembly is symmetric, so I tried to start a 2D static simulation but I cannot figure out how to model/mate the threaded nuts and bolts on the assembly. 

If anyone has any advice on how to proceed, it would be greatly appreciated. I have attached some photos of the assembly model for reference.