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Hole tool -feature
3dcad
Member, OS Professional, Mentor Posts: 2,472 PRO
What do you people think of separate hole tool?
Which would be simply for making holes quickly, click hole tool, set diameter and depth, set hole type (threads etc.), set pattern values, set reference & mirror, select edge 1 and dimension, select edge 2 and dimension. Include hole library with all or some of fields auto-fill.
Tool should be similar to 3-ax wood-working cnc machines default editor which takes only seconds to create a bunch of drillings.
Doing same in cad takes half an hour creating circles, dimensioning, extruding, making patterns.. and the pain of checking/editing dimensions in dozens of dialogs..
I will add some screenshots of the most usable drilling dialogs in our machines if this gets any attention.
This would save tons of my time but does anyone else need it?
+1 for hole tool
Which would be simply for making holes quickly, click hole tool, set diameter and depth, set hole type (threads etc.), set pattern values, set reference & mirror, select edge 1 and dimension, select edge 2 and dimension. Include hole library with all or some of fields auto-fill.
Tool should be similar to 3-ax wood-working cnc machines default editor which takes only seconds to create a bunch of drillings.
Doing same in cad takes half an hour creating circles, dimensioning, extruding, making patterns.. and the pain of checking/editing dimensions in dozens of dialogs..
I will add some screenshots of the most usable drilling dialogs in our machines if this gets any attention.
This would save tons of my time but does anyone else need it?
+1 for hole tool
//rami
Tagged:
11
Comments
It allows me to visualize drill point angles in blind holes and selecting drill sizes is quick. I don't have to lookup what diameter a number 7 drill is for a tapped hole, then sketch the correct diameter circle for an extrude cut.
Plus 1 for hole feature tool.
A few hole tool-related suggestions:
Ditto for Hole Tool (wizard) and pretty much reiterating what Julian mentions:
Holes are indispensable in my work since most of my work in product design requires attachment points and fasteners. Holes are much better than creating extruded cuts because they provide the designer with a library of standards which can be switched up at any time in the design process (i.e. can change a thru hole to a tapped hole) which leads to a much more accurate model for either prototyping or manufacturing. Additionally hole's information is automatically passed thru to the drwg further completing the description for manufacturing. Also holes (in SW) can be 3D meaning that you can apply a single hole feature at many differing planes on the part (super valuable for sheet metal.)
aicher@battleaxe.com
Tigard, OR
Engineering Consulting Partner
Professor, Engineering Technology, Palomar College, San Marcos, CA
sowelldevon@gmail.com
760 809 9046
CarlsbadCAD Carlsbad,CA
Twitter: @onshapetricks & @babart1977
+1 on the hole feature. Both SW and Inventor have good ones to reference. I guess some people don't really need a hole feature, but like a parachute, if need it, you REALLY need it...:-)
The ability (in SolidWorks) to specify a hole and add a csink, cbore, tapped hole, etc -- and then automatically add the relevant information in a 2D production drawing has been a huge benefit for me.
Hole tool/wizard/feature... is indispensable.
Dries
time was that you just needed a 2D annotation and simple hole in 3D. Not any more. With the growth of direct manufactured parts (3D printing, certain types of CNC) we need the option of modelling threads as part of these tools.
FWIW Autodesk Fusion has a very neat trick. Model a part in SolidWorks, create a hole with the hole tool (which in Solidaworks just gives a plain hole and adds a note). Open the file in Fusion and boom. Fusion models the thread for you automatically. Very clever.
in general, Inventor and Fusion are well ahead of SolidWorks in this area, but the best I've used was the old VX thread tools. So, I'm waiting to see what OnShape come up with.
I design small stuff with not much material between features, so to be able to view the drill shaped bottoms of blind holes in relation to other features is invaluable.
i studied measures of threaded holes many years ago and I still have a wall poster in my office but... we are talking about time saving. Hole wizard save a lot of time.
We always use this tool in SOLIDWORKS to define threaded holes, counterbores, through-holes and countersinks. Many of these features can already be replicated in Onshape, but the hole wizard streamlines the process.
I would also love to see the ability to create linear & circular patterns from existing features. I tried to do it yesterday and was surprised how difficult things became.
It's my own personal pet peeve of software that promises the world before launch and garners a huge anticipation and then fizzles at launch with missing features... who has patience anymore to wait for basic features to be implemented later?
Take it or leave it, just my opinion.
I think it's brilliant solution to have public beta before all features are built, this way it's going to be as close as possible to what users request.
There is already multiple cad solutions available, why not use some of those in the meantime? I won't be using OnS in production before it's better than my current solution, but I like to follow and learn it from the beginning because for some reason I'm expecting it to be better some day.
Also, following on to @Kevin Quigley - being able to automatically model threads would be great, but it would be important to be able to toggle thread display on and off (checkbox in the feature creation menu?) to reduce computational overhead.
(Finally, no offense meant by "CAD weenies". I include myself proudly in that group, even if I'm only a junior-grade CAD weenie...)
a) we can make holes without it (admittedly tapped holes are very laborious)
and
b) the Hole tool will require a sophisticated user interface, whose design will need deep understanding of how parts are best constructed in OnS
Onshape's approach involves a paradigm shift, particularly in respect of assembly mating.
Because of that, I think it is not obvious exactly how it will be used.
For instance, there's a possibility (remote, but it's an example of things currently unknowable) that it is desirable to have an option whereby certain types of holes (particularly dowel or spigot holes) automatically insert a mate connector.
A public beta phase with rich interaction, as we see here, can provide that degree of understanding of how the new product will be used.
It is a very different beast from a product launch, and I think it's a category error to expect a comparable degree of completion for both.
Twitter: @onshapetricks & @babart1977
Dave
Ariel, WA