Setting Position of Hole

[fsonnichsen]

I always have problems setting relative geometries on components. In the case shown here I simply want to space 2 holes. They must be centered along the long axis of the device, and a specified distance apart. I have accomplished this by subtracting in my head and spacing them 0.2in from the edges of the body. However I would prefer to reference them from the center of the body.

  There is no way to "Construct: Place Point on Center"--something that continually annoys me (and I think others).

  There is a "phantom" centerpoint that mysteriously appears as you move the hole about.  I can place the hole on this point--but there is no "select " for this point in the Reference boxes so I can move the hole from the center.

  I tried putting in 2 construct planes as shown, hoping to use them to set the "select" distance. But these disappear when I try to place a hole.

I have reviewed the written documentation regarding construction, assemblies etc but I don't see basics like this well written. 

Any suggestions appreciated

Fritz

[HughesTooling]

Personally I always use a sketch.

Mark

[jeff_strater · Accepted solution]

I would do this using a sketch.  You can create a centerline on that face by snapping to the center of the short edge, then place two points on that line.  That centers them side-to-side.  Then just add dimensions to the ends, and make them equal.  The use the "from sketch" option in Hole, so you can create both holes at once:

[HughesTooling · Accepted solution]

Also for something symmetrical like this I'd tend to make it symmetrical around the origin. Makes it easier to get references.

Mark

[fsonnichsen]

OK and thanks for the suggestions. I had originally created (no sketches) a hole and clicked it onto the center of the base object which always seems to work. I think this is what Mark mentions in his 2nd post.

   The problem was that I could not get the "select" in "hole" to come up afterwards to set the spacing. I tried again and it worked this time. Maybe a glitch. 

  I see that Jeff's more extensive method does allow more definite specification of dimensions which would be useful. I guess there is no problem with having additional sketch in my time line. 

  Thinking back on my original attempt--I still don't understand however, why my construction planes vanish when I try to place a hole--seems like there are times when this would be needed. Also it would be nice if a point could be centered upon a symmetric object (other than a circle, sphere, torus). I can see a lot of uses for this.

Thanks all

Fritz

[Ajay_Kumar_Reddy]

Hey @fsonnichsen,

Adding to @HughesTooling and @jeff_strater 

You did great in using reference 1 but there you forgot to use reference 2.

1. click on reference 2 in the dialogue box 

2. select the horizontal line(2" line) on the top face.

3. I found that the top face vertical distance is 0.188" you need to enter 0.188/2 in the dialogue box as shown.

there is no need to do additional things such as construction plans and sketches.

I'm attaching the f3d too.

[fsonnichsen]

Yes-the "Selects" usually work. I had some problems initially with them and not sure why. I had a few other recent issues and 2 crashes--maybe time for a reinstall

thanks

fritz