Holes or rivets along a curved surface

dylan_rose

Hey all, I don't think this is possible yet, and this might be addressed once sheet-metal tools are added, but I'm looking for a way to add holes to a cylinder or similar objects. Here's a rough example of the sort of shape I'm talking about:

In order to add holes, I can sketch holes on a plane but the holes will be skewed because they are projecting through a flat drawing. What I need is to be able to project them from the center of the cylinder. If we had the ability to 'wrap' drawings to curved surfaces, or create flat drawings from curved faces, I could simply add the holes to the resulting drawing. But I don't think that's currently possible and I haven't found a good workaround. Basically I want to do this while still being precise about hole location:

Thanks all!

Here's the example file:
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/a6bb0a856e9922fd2c91d968/w/40289ee9887fc34a34eb8fdd/e/cb2cc302e5d3bd0762d73bf3


-Dylan

bradley_sauln

Nice @tim_rice1! @alex_ryan here is my take on it: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/57ed1749d91ac010bb801670/w/4aa8a864ef653ece0b3c56d0/e/f2f972656d7c0ad50715326c. I am utilizing the curvature of the cylinder to extrude a square and then filleting the edges to form a cylinder. From there I use the curved pattern FeatureScript to generate the holes required. The spacing of the holes needs to be tweaked.

alex_ryan

I need this also!  My one major project relies on this feature and I'll have to hit up Solidworks buddies to do it.  

TimRice

Though there is currently no wrap sketch feature, I attempted to replicate the geometry that you were looking for here: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/57ec7b9e93832a1090937b61/w/8703b9c0ea9d626ee6cca4e0/e/7bc2ae3b46afa7130aff2591. Basically I just used tangent planes and extrudes to manually position the holes near the edges. It is not a particularly elegant solution, but it gets the job done. I'll be sure to add you to wrap sketch improvement request!

bradley_sauln

Nice @tim_rice1! @alex_ryan here is my take on it: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/57ed1749d91ac010bb801670/w/4aa8a864ef653ece0b3c56d0/e/f2f972656d7c0ad50715326c. I am utilizing the curvature of the cylinder to extrude a square and then filleting the edges to form a cylinder. From there I use the curved pattern FeatureScript to generate the holes required. The spacing of the holes needs to be tweaked.

mahir

The Curve Pattern FS can more or less replicate a surface pattern, but only if the curve is planar.

TimRice

Must have missed that FS @bradley_sauln, pretty neat!

mahir

I just modified @jon_sorrells' Curve Pattern FS to incorporate a reference surface. Seems to work as intended, keeping holes normal to the surface.

FeatureScript Curve Pattern (Modified)