Locating Holes

[sbmathias]

SW newbie coming from an 2D AutoCAD background, I find it awkward to locate holes with the Hole Wizard or Simple Holes tools. I'm used to drawing (temporary) lines, then drawing circles at the intersections of the lines.

A good example of this would be when I'd like to have bolt holes to secure diagonal bracing of a structure. Centerlines on the vertical and diagonal would let me easily drop holes in the correct places if I could pick the intersection of the two centerlines.

What is standard procedure for accurately locating holes? Do you just pick in the general vicinity of the desired location and then dimension it?

 

[ctopher]

Yes, when you select the position of the hole in HW, select multiple point approx where you want them, then dimension them. You can always go back and add/deleted them by edit the 3Dsketch the HW creates.

 

[sbmathias]

Then, if I want a hole (actually, two lined-up holes) along my example centerlines, how could I dimension them? I believe I tried dimensioning a hole center to a construction centerline as 0, and wasn't permitted to do so.

 

[Mandrake22]

Why bother with the centerlines? You could fully dimension all of the holes or you could use a combination of dinmensioning and horizontal and vertical relations.

 

[TheTick]

You can add centerlines to your hole wizard positioning sketch. You can even add bolt circles. Just be sure that all 2D entities are "reference".

In my work, horizontal and vertical sketch constraints are a gamble, since we must model components "in position", which is often skewed or subject to reorientation by customer.

"An object at rest can not be stopped."

http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

 

[drawoh]

sbmathias,

There is nothing to stop you from drawing contruction lines in your hole sketch. You can apply dimensions to the contruction lines and all the other sketch constraints. You can attach the hole points to the lines.

All this simplifies you model, and clearly expresses design intent.

JHG

 

[J-C]

Make sure you preselect the face for your hole before you start the Hole Wizard. This makes the point placement sketch "2d" instead" of "3d". The 2d sketch has more options for using sketch geometry and just easier to get around in.

The 3d sketch is just there for putting points on non planar faces though you can use it for both. If they would beef up it's capabilities, there would be no more use for the 2d sketch in the hole wizard.

Jason Capriotti
Smith & Nephew, Inc.