Adding Slots into Hole Charts

[diamondcat]

I have a large plate with many holes and a few slots. I have all of the holes in the hole chart already, but I want to have the coords for the slot radii in there as well. When I try to 'Add Holes' to the chart then I select the radius end of one of the slots, it selects the entire thing and calls it a loop and puts the coords, to the center of the entire slot, in the chart.
I am using SWX 2005 v4.0

Thanks

 

[CADGemini]

diamondcat,

When you dimension a slot on a drawing you normally want to dimension to the center of it. Is this not what you want? and Why? I belive in previous versions it would not even allow you to add slotted holes to a hole chart.

Best Regards,
Jon

Challenges are what makes life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.

Solidworks 2005 SP3.1

 

[diamondcat]

A slot has two radii, one on each end and we dimension to the center of each of those radii. So you end up with two sets of X-Y coords per slot. The hole chart is giving me only one set and it is located at the center of the entire slot, in other words, equal distant from each radii.

 

[smcadman]

I believe it is the norm to dimensions slots to the center, not to the centers of the 2 arcs of the slot. If I understand you correctly, you want 2 location points for each slot on your hole chart. Why? Are you punching 2 round holes, then follow that with a square punch?

Flores

 

[Regg]

We also dimension to the center of the radii of the slot because that is the way our shop likes it. It has been that way for the last 35 years. So for me dimensioning to the center of the slot seems unnatural. I did not post this to pick a fight, just to let you know that there are others that dimension slots this way. I do not particularly care. I do it the way I am instructed. Funny how different shops machine parts.

 

[diamondcat]

It's basically a machining process for us. The shop needs to know where to start machining the slot and where to end. We are machine builders not sheet metal people. The slot is going into a 1.00" thick plate, it's not a punch process.

 

[EEnd]

Would it work to create a library feature consisting of 2 holes and a cut between them, and use the library feature for your slots? Then there would be a hole at each end that the hole table should recognize. This may be a more appropriate way of modeling a slot that is going to be milled rather than punched.

Eric

 

[smcadman]

Sorry for the confusion; different trades on here.

As for using a single palette feature slot, that too will only create 1 point in a hole chart. You may be able to cheat it by creating a palette feature "half slot", and either mirror the "half slot", or make "right" and "left" half slots so the hole chart will see both centers.

Flores

 

[diamondcat]

Thanks, I ended up doing what Eric suggested. I created two holes per slot, then made another feature which cut-out the space between them. I then had to do a couple more things to make it show up in the chart properly. When I opened up the drawing, after putting in the slots the new way, the slots were put back into the chart with one set of coords like it did before (I had previously deleted those out of the chart). I ended up opening my plate model again and supressing the cut-out space feature, going back to my drw and refreshing the chart so it added all of the individual holes, going back to the drw and unsupressing the cut-out space, the when I went back to the drw the slots looked good and the end point coords were still all in the chart.
Kind of a weird sequence of tasks but it worked for now.

Lori

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

What happens when you update the Hole Chart?


Helpful SW websites every user should be aware of faq559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions faq559-1091

 

[diamondcat]

I keep hitting refresh and it doesn't change, is there another button or thing that I should do that is a hole chart specific update?

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Just highlight the chart & hit the Rebuild (traffic light) button.

I just tried your method & it crashed SW.


Helpful SW websites every user should be aware of faq559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions faq559-1091

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

OK just tried again. When I updated (rebuilt) the chart, the hole co-ords stayed but the slot centre was added.


Helpful SW websites every user should be aware of faq559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions faq559-1091

 

[diamondcat]

I did the same thing and my slot centers didn't come back...

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

I suppressed the slot before creating the hole chart. If you delete the row containing the slot co-ordinates, you are right, they do not return after a rebuild.


Helpful SW websites every user should be aware of faq559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions faq559-1091