Circular/rectangular pattern help for repeating circles inside a rectangle.

[ravindraw]

I'm trying to draw circles near the corners of a rectangle to act as pilot holes for screws. There are 2 pillars on each side and the holes need to be centered to the thickness of the pillars.

I'd like to keep all the circles the same size and linked so if I change the size of one circle all of them change. Also if the dimensions of the rectangle or the pillars changes the holes should reposition correctly.

I tried the circular pattern but just using Full doesn't position the circles at the right place. I tried to use Angle, but I'm not sure which angle I need to supply.

I was able to do it with the rectangular pattern using spacing by defining a user parameter for the distance of one circle from the edge and then doing a rectangle width - (2 * circle center distance from edge) formula. Was wondering if there is an easier/better way.

I was also able to do it with a symmetric constraint but once the constraint was specified I could no longer change the dimensions of the circle except if they were specified as a user parameter.

Thanks for reading.

[davebYYPCU]

Your file does not contain the attempts you speak of.

Use the origin symmetry, 

use offset (39.00) of the rectangle

extrude the plate and put your (20 dia ) holes on the offset corners.

Might help....

[ravindraw]

Thanks @davebYYPCU , I didn't put them all in there cause I thought it'd create a confusion. I probably should have put in 3 different rectangles with each of the attempts.

Your solution does work but just to confirm I have to create all 4 circles individually and constrain them coincident with the corners?

[davebYYPCU · Accepted solution]

If using the Hole Command there are no sketched circles.

To change the diameters - Edit the hole command diameter.

to change the Offset, Edit the sketch.

Quick and simple.

[ravindraw]

Ok. So I tried this. To edit the diameter and/or the offsets, use variables, right?

[davebYYPCU]

You aren’t using variables, / user parameters - the parameter page is empty. Pic 1, above.

variables / parameters / dimensions, same thing, 

change any one - the whole thing is going to update.

Might help...

[chrisplyler]

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@davebYYPCU wrote:

variables / parameters / dimensions, same thing, 

change any one - the whole thing is going to update.

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...with one clarification...

If you set up a USER parameter, and you want to use it in a dimension, you type the name of that parameter directly into the dimension field. Then you change it using the parameters list. If you just type a new numerical value into the dimension field, then that dimension is no longer tied to that parameter...the flow of value works user parameter to dimension, but not the other way around.

If you are NOT using a user parameter, but instead just relying on the project parameters (the d## entries in the parameters list), then the flow goes both ways. You update one in the list, the corresponding dimension changes too, and vice versa.