Question about hole feature in 2012

[chrisw01a]

When you create a hole in 2012, you have to click two times in the "diameter" field.  I guess the first click is to get focus of of the new "mini toolbar" and the second is to get into the text box.  This is very annoying when you are adding alot of holes as it doubles the  clicks.  

Has anyone else noticed this?  Is there any fixes?

Thanks.

[KevinLi-Autodesk]

Hi chrisw01a,

Appreciate your report !

I don't meet your problem in my inventor 2012, when i select  a face to place the hole feature, the diameter text box in mini toolbar is highlighted automatically and i can directly type new value, i attach an avi for my behavior.

Also SP1 for 2012 is out, you can download it from http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=17534725&linkID=9242019 and install it for double check this problem.

Regards,

Kevin Li

SQA Engineer

Autodesk, Inc.

[chrisw01a]

Thanks for the reply.  After watching your video, I went into "part mode" and I came up with the same results.  However If you go into "sheetmetal mode"  and use a sketch point to locate the hole, then the "mini toolbar" defaults to the "depth" field and I don't see how to change that. 

We use sketches to locate most holes.  And normally us sheetmetal parts.

Any ideas?

[SBix26]

I'm not using 2012 in production yet, but I tried your workflow, and ran into the same or similar problem-- in sheet metal, with a hole center sketch, the holes mini-toolbar, when it appears, defaults to Through All for depth, but displays the depth field (with "(All)" shown as the depth) and not the diameter field-- see attached image.  If I click in the diameter field in the dialog box, or click on the diameter pull control on the model itself, then the mini-toolbar switches to diameter.

Edit: same behavior, for me, in normal modeling environment.  This makes the Holes mini-toolbar pretty worthless for me-- why can't it show both fields at the same time?  For what it's worth, I have SP1 applied.

[KevinLi-Autodesk]

Hi chrisw01a,

Appreciate your comments, and I also got your observation.

I have logged it in our issue tracking system (1416906) and development team is taking a look at it.

Regards,

Kevin Li

[ASCO-engineering]

hi,

i've been frustrated by the hole feature quite a bit since upgrading to the 2012 release from the 2009 release. Previously, creating a hole would have a logical flow; slect face, click edge and enter value, click second edge and enter value, then adjust the files and options in the dialog window and finish the hole. 

With the 2012 release, pressing enter after typing a value in the distance field fully completes the hole command so i often end up with a hole that is not completely specified, especially if you're used to the "old" way of placing the holes.

Also, modifying a hole can be troublesome. If the distances from the edge are not as desired you can click a value but you should not press enter after tying the new value. there is no "accept" icon displayed as is the case when you adjust the diameter. This probably just takes a little getting used to. However, there is a bug when trying to redefine the hole on  a different plane. In that case the distance to edge is not pre-selected so you can type directly. The expected next step would be to delete the value by hand and type the new value. However, after deleting the value, inventor automatically then types 0.0 before you have typed your own value. (this also happens when editing without changing the plane, but the pre-highlighted value does not require deleting so inventor does not add the 0.0 value then.)

I really would like to see the entry method for the hole feature changed as it is extremely likely to cause errors in our designs.

Misha