Multiple holes(non instanced) in NX4?

[Dawson70]

I'm stuck in NX2 because of company procedures, and I'm curious if NX4 has implemented the ability to make multiple holes at once, much like subtracting cylinders. I've made atleast 3 requests for this feature since V15, and I wonder if they have ever gotten around to it.

 

[looslib]

What do you mean by "multiple holes at once"?
Multiple locations - patterns?
Multiple diameters at the same location - counterbores?


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli
Sr IS Technologist
L-3 Communications

 

[Dawson70]

When I get a file in from Boeing it won't have any holes in them, just points indicating the hole positions. Since most of the time they are not located in rectangular or round patterns I have to do each hole seperately. This takes a few steps. Click the face, click apply, click point on to point, click ok. These steps must be repeated for each hole. If there are 100 holes, I will have to perform 400 clicks to get the holes in.

I was wondering if they have made it so you can click the face, then drag a box around all the locations or not.

 

[Shadowspawn]

Dawson70,
I've yet to stumble across that functionality. It sounds to me like your on the right track though. There is the copy/paste functionality for features, but in reality it's more complicated then just adding the features 1 by 1 as you described. The bonus, if you can call it that, is that both methods allow you to link the all the hole expressions to the first hole...
Anyhow, perhaps a macro or grip would serve your purposes (where you would just keep adding holes of a particular size (or expression) and located at points) until you cancel the routine.

Regards,
SS
CAD should pay for itself, shouldn't it?

 

[J-C]

Do you access to another Cad program like Solidworks as it will do this. Problem of course is the translation you have to go through but it sounds like you are already doing that with the imported data.

Jason

UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2005 SP5.0 on WinXP SP2
SolidWorks 2006 SP3.3 on WinXP SP2

 

[Dawson70]

I have access to Catia V5 R16, Rhino, Cadkey99 w/solids, but I'm not sure if any of these programs would offer the functionality. It just seems a shame to have to click so many times to put holes in planar faces. Don't get me started on putting them in contour surfaces...

 

[Dawson70]

I got to thinking about using other software to make the holes. This would blow all the parameters, so probably not the best fix. I'll try the copy paste function tomorrow. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Dawson70]

I found a way to copy from the model navigation tool, but no way to paste. Where do I paste from?

 

[02Busa]

Hit "Ctrl V" on your keyboard or from the pulldown menu select Edit, Paste. I don't think it's really any quicker though.

 

[Dawson70]

I did manage to copy a large series of subtracted cylinders to a similar solid. That saved about 30 minutes of mindless clicking. I'll keep an eye out for more opportunities to use this feature. Thanks!

 

[spaceaero]

If you are working with a flat surface you can make a sketch and add the points to the sketch using project points onto sketch plane (sketch function)then creat circles at each piont in the sketch. Extrude the sketch and subtract from the main body. You can use this sketch for your next hole making task by using copy feature sketch and edit paste the sketch to your next part (non associative), modify the sketch as required (move the circles to a new location) and extrude subtract, repeat as necessary.

 

[abeschneider]

not sure if this will be of real help to you, but if you have access to CATIA v5, check out "User Pattern" functionality. I believe it will let you create a user-defined pattern based on a bunch of points. Then, you can use this pattern to quickly "instantiate" a bunch of holes (or other features). I think you have to be in the "Part Design" workbench to see the patterning tools.