How to select the outer edges of a face?

jock_banan

Hi! I'm trying to achieve a pretty simple thing, I just can't figure out how. 

I have an object created by extruding a shape with many edges with holes in it, like this dummy one: 

Now i want to chamfer the outer edges of it, not the holes. This is essentially what I want to achieve: 



 If I select the face, it will chamfer the holes, so the only possibility is to select the other edges one-by-one. That's not so bad in this case, but I have some much more complex shapes and it gets really annoying for them. So, is there a way to select the outer edges only, all together, or select the face and then deselect some (in this case the inner) edges of it for chamfer/fillet? Thank you!

philip_thomas

Jock - the 10 cent solution is of course to move the feature(s) making the holes below the chamfer. 
If the locations of the holes are defined from the un-chamfered edges, you can still make the sketch before the chamfer, just move the hole feature below it.
I am thinking if there is another way.

owen_sparks

On topic, erm sort of, I've on occasion thought it would be easier to select a part as a whole, and then the edges I didn't want the chamfer on...

I recall a demo of featurescript that added a chamfer to all edges of a part.  Presumably with just a query of all edges owned by the target part and a chamfer command.  So could we dig that out, add an extra input field for an "omit these edges" selection and hey presto?

Owen S.

philip_thomas

@owen_sparks - you are totally right that that would work (and not very hard to write).
That said, if the number of holes changed (increased) - the new holes would have a chamfer.
Two potential solutions would be (a) put the hole feature after the chamfer or (b) a custom feature that identified (and chamfered) outside edges only.
Want to write it?

owen_sparks

@philip_thomas

Good points.  Can't justify the time today but will have a play at the weekend.

Cheers, Owen S.