Centering bolt in hole. Simple?

[Anonymous]

Two questions actually that are kind of related.

Q1: I am trying to do something that has always baffled me in 3ds Max. Something very easy to do in AutoCAD! Being a technical animator alot of my client supplied models are often missing components. Most notably bolts and other fasteners! This tends to look bad if they are missing so I take the time to put the proper fastener (in the EXACT center) of each hole. Pretty easy to do with AutoCAD snaps and a solid model but what about 3ds max? Maybe a script someone knows of?

Q2: The motor when imported from an ACIS file has the pivot set to the center of the motor. Unfortunately this pivot is off center of the motor shaft because of the electrical box on the side. How can I move the pivot to the center of the motor shaft accurately? Can I somehow move the pivot to the center of a sub-object shaft selection? Having this pivot (or an appropriate dummy object) at the exact center is critical when aligning other rotating objects. Otherwise the wobble looks bad!

The attached images is a motor (body object) with four bolt holes in the base that need to be filled with the bolt (4 times). If anyone has some tips on how I might achieve this easily as well as Q2. Keep in mind that I will be doing this for hundreds of bolts in some cases.

Thanks,

Gord

[Steve_Curley]

Using Snap to Vertex, create a Circle shape (select the Edge radio button, not the centre one) directly over the hole. Align the Bolt to the pivot point of the circle (which will be at its centre).
Similarly for the motor - create a circle at the end of the spindle, align the Pivot Point of the motor to to that of the Circle, but de-activate either the X or Y axis depending on the orientation of the motor. Command Panel > Hierarchy tab > Affect Pivot Only (to move just the pivot of the motor).

[Anonymous]

Thanks Steve,

Great suggestion, which I did figure out before my post. It does work but its pretty slow and because I might be doing this operation for hundreds of fasteners it could be time restrictive. If I had to resort to this then I think I would stick with AutoCAD for placing fasteners.

Otherwise maybe a custom script is in order.

Gord

[Anonymous]

Using the same approach, you could:
-select the polys inside the holes
-detach as clones to a separate object
-use a script to detach each element to its own object
-align bolts to centers

[Anonymous]

I got the same problem. Tried to write a script to identify circular holes in meshes, but couldn't think of an algorithm.

[Anonymous]

that is a possibility. however if you have hundreds of holes you'll need some kind of automation.

[Anonymous]

Well it would be ideal to be able to select the polys by smoothing group or material id. But I think if you select all the polys then gradually deselect chunks, it shouldn't be too bad. I don't have any idea how complex your model is though...

[Anonymous]

if you use smoothing groups to identify holes you'd still need a way to check if it's a hole (concavity), check if it's a circular hole, and check it's size.

think of something like this:
http://www.motorator.com/uploads/blog_images/0000/0884/World_Products_Motown_II_2.jpg

[alexJ682T]

So, 11 years passed, any improvements in this field?

I also have to center "bolt" inside a hole....