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How to make a slotted hole
jan_didden
Member Posts: 12 ✭
New user here, progressing slowly.
How do I make a slotted hole? It would look like two opposing half circles connected by two straight lines. Something like the attached which I found in an existing design. Grateful for any pointers.
Jan Didden
0
Answers
Slot tool.
Yes, I know that slot tool. My question was how to actually make a slot on a sketch. Do I first have to draw a line or a point? Just clicking the slot tool and then trying to draw doesn't give me anything.
Jan
Yes, you first need a line. Then use the slot tool on the line -it uses the line as a centreline for the slot, with the radii centred on the endpoints of the line.
You can also select splines and arcs, not just a line.
Have you tried the learning center? This and many other sketching techniques are covered in sketch training for free.
Also if you hover the mouse over the tool selection you'll get a brief description. In this instance the description is "make a slot by selecting line, spline or arc". They can be used in combination as well.
https://learn.onshape.com/
Yes, I got that far. Drew a line on a sketch and put a slot around it. But I keep getting error messages like 'not fully defined' and the slot remains red in the list of items. I can extrude it 'through all' and it looks OK but the outline remains in blue and I can't get the dimensions/position to display.
Jan
@jan_didden
Is the centerline selected for the slot completely constrained? See the difference between sketch 1 & 2 in this example. Sketch 2 shows as not fully constrained even though its the same. In sketch 1 the centerline is constrained.
If you are seeing red in the sketch feature list post a link to your document for a review since something else is wrong. Maybe something over defined?
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/ac0ecfe4f301c56899904542/w/f485e7914d309ca0473669c7/e/d63eab67f229ebc830cb3e5c
Hmmm. I need to learn what 'constrained' means, and how to manipulate it.Thanks guys, I now have a direction!
Jan
Good learning resources here:
https://learn.onshape.com/
With help from my friend Cor van Doorn, I have it like I want. Had some error messages like 'not completely regenerated' and 'undefined' but now understood their origin and solved them. I also understand why all elements have to be constrained to something, that was a new concept I needed some time to grok. Onwards, always onwards!
Jan
Since google leads people here when asked 'how to create a slot'
there's a new featurescript. make a hole (with the hole feature) and turn it into a slot.
hole to slot feature
give it a try and let me know if it works for you.
@jelte_steur_info Great, that custom feature is just what I needed but it doesn't work on sheet metal models, which is where I need it. Do you know of any way that this can be adjusted to work with sheet metal?
I’ll look into it
@SebastianMaklary :
I'm afraid there's no good way to make it work on sheet metal.
I tried the most crude way manually , but it doesn't result in a proper shaped slot. (it does end up making a cut, but straight.
I'm afraid the hole feature is the only non-perpendicular cut that onshape allows in sheet metal… for now…
@Derek_Van_Allen_BD: I believe you've tested the edges of sheet metal functionality with featurescript. do you see any option to create a slotted slot-hole with e.g. countersink geometry?
@jelte_steur_info @SebastianMaklary From a manufacturing perspective I do have some objections about countersinking a slot in sheet metal, but bullying the Onshape sheet metal kernel in general is something I can get behind no matter the application. There are a few more ways to get non-perpendicular geometry to build in a sheet metal environment but they all come with caveats. Well 2 main ones. Firstly how much do you care about your tool being limited to only planar surfaces? Secondly how much do you care about the flat pattern environment showing the same features as the 3d view? The form feature allows you to willfully violate most of the sheet metal kernel's checking because it assumes you've got a forming die that does whatever you've desired to introduce to your model at the locations specified, but it requires a bit of setup in a secondary studio and configuration settings, and does not work on curved surfaces nor add geometry to the flat patterns, only a sketch representation drawn by you.
I did get excited the update that allowed countersunk geometry in holes last year and was looking into turning off some of the guards and flags set by the registerSheetMetalBooleanTools call that allows it to work to see if I could coax it into working on more cases than pure planar geometry or to use it for additive operations instead of subtractive but I recall running into engine side limitations with my experiments. It's been awhile since I made the attempt though and I do need to look into alternatives for my kerfinator script so I could get back into it.
Derek Van Allen | Engineering Consultant | Meddler😐️
😆Don't get me wrong. I love the sheet metal environments in Onshape, it was one of the core reasons we switched to the software as an improvement from every other CAD system we were using before. It's just that the more useful a tool is the more I look for ways to use it outside the developers' original intended use case.
Derek Van Allen | Engineering Consultant | Meddler@SebastianMaklary I guess finishing the sheet metal part and use hole to slot afterwards if that fits your flow?
@lana Looks like I got support for countertweeped holes working in sheet metal
Is there any way to get registerSheetMetalBooleanTools to support curved surfaces or union operations? How much of that function is kernel side vs featurescript side? I got a kerf bending script that would be massively more efficient if I could support one or both of those things instead of trying to run the math manually and implement a non-sheet-metal unfolder.
Derek Van Allen | Engineering Consultant | Meddler@Derek_Van_Allen_BD Unfortunately, curved surfaces support is not available yet and most of the matter is on the core side. In order to support this we'll have to create and manage separate instances of the tool for curved wall and for flat. We have customer requests to support such holes, - so some time in a future.
@lana I don't imagine that additive tools are on that same roadmap, or opening up the general sheet metal engine to support "non-traditional" sheet metal geometry like pockets or kerf cuts, are they? As a sheet goods manufacturer our company uses the sheet metal tools to do a lot of non-sheet metal things which is why I'm always bullying the kernel. Stuff like this. There are also numerous threads on these boards of people looking for live hinge geometry for 3d printing or like V groove cuts for bending ACM sheets which I've been asked to make custom features for that the sheet metal engine is tantalizingly close to allowing but I get blocked by an @ level function that stops me from going all the way.
Derek Van Allen | Engineering Consultant | Meddler