use of "Hole" command

[mbostonsprint]

I am puzzled by the behavior of the Hole command, which seems to me to be the appropriate choice for use in locating a hole in the cylindrical face of a tube. I am operating in the Direct Modeling regime. In following through the steps in creating the hole, I arrive at the point where the reference dimension is to be applied, in a box close to the cursor, and as I attempt to enter the desired dimension via the keyboard, after clearing the existing data in the box, the dimensional data sometimes turns red, then leaves (1) highlighted digit in the box, then (sometimes) the box jumps to a different location on the screen, and it will not allow me to enter a dimension such as 1.493. I have tried this about a dozen times without a successful conclusion. I am trying to locate the hole using the end of the cylinder as my reference plane, having previously located the hole radially using the cursor (click/drag).

I note that I can place the hole using the cursor (click/drag) at 0.100 intervals that appear in the data box, and I assume that some sort of snap arrangement is driving this behavior, but it seems impossible to enter the data that I would like to use to put the hole in the right place.

Any help to be found for this? I have done some searching through the forum info, and didn't come up with much related to this Hole command.

Thanks --

[Mike.Zhang]

Sorry to your inconvenience in this issue.

I can reproduce it only in Mac OS, can't reproduce it in Windows, seems the Mac Only issue.

It's really a annoying issue here, we can't input the value base on the reference.

I've logged issue FUS-16602 to track it.

We'll fix it in future, perhaps in April release, thanks for letting us know it.

[mbostonsprint]

Hi, Mike --

Thanks for at least taking notice of this issue. It seems quite repeatable in my experience (tried this with a different model today, same result), and I am wondering whether there is something I am doing (or not) that might contribute to this issue. The software is to me unusable for designing simple cylindrical parts with cross holes through the wall located at some specific design distance, from the end of the part, or from a shoulder. I am using a W7 operating system in a Dell computer with a fair amount of memory and i7 processor if that is of any use in tracking this down.

Are there any other users seeing this problem?

Thanks --

[karyeka]

I can reproduce this both on Win and MAC. Unfortunately some changes in this area has caused regression. I know this was working before. We have started looking at it. This seems to happen with positioning hole center on cylinder with reference, and then it spreads to other geometry (hole on box). It doesn't happen on box at the start.

We understand your usability frustration here. I will update this space once we have more analysis.

Regards,

Anand

Fusion360 Development

[mbostonsprint]

Hi, Anand --

Thanks to you as well for applying some effort to this problem. I haven't needed to use this software for some weeks, and it seemed to me that (maybe) 3 months ago this particular operation worked OK. At least I know it's not me now. On a possibly-related note, is there any possibility to use a Hole as a "cutting tool" in conjunction with Sweep or Revolve in order to easily create a slot, i.e., circumferential slot around a cylindrical surface? This is a major pain to do right now.

Additionally, I note that when a Hole is applied to a cylinder wall as a through hole, no selectable vertices appear on the inside wall. They are automatically part of the geometry on the outside wall. Inside-wall vertices would be highly useful, for example, to set up the above slot creation in the absence of an easier method.

BTW, I admire the concurrent engineering effort Autodesk is doing on this software. I have been in similar shoes, and sometimes it's not so much fun. Keep up the good work.

Thanks

Matt

[Anonymous]

Hi I think this "Hole" problem happened after they had improved the "Hole" command that will spread the holes automatically. Since you are at the Direct Modeling mode you can try to offset a plane, then using "Move" command to rotate or move the plan to a postion that is bearly touching your cylinder, then you can create the hole. If you want to make a slot, maybe the "Slot" command at "Sketch" can help. Try using a plane. Hope this will solve your temporary problem. 

[karyeka]

Hi Matt,

We have the fix for the original problem where its not possible to enter something like "1.493" when you are referencing to position the hole center. We need to test it elaborately.

Yes, we don't have a straightforward way to do circumferential slot around a cylindrical surface. Can you propose this on the Idea Station?

Regarding modeling slot -

There is an old thread on this. http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/sketching-sculpting-modeling-and/sketching-or-sweep-revolve-on-cylindr...

Kingson, I tried with the slot sketch and got it projected on to the cylinder but then don't know how to cut it.

I'm sure you must be aware of this. I would do a slot something like this -

1. Create a rectangular sketch perpendicular to the intended slot (width = diameter of the slot end)

2. Revolve cut it to the cylinder to the required degrees

3. Fillet the edges (radius = half the width)

On the vertex available for hole on outer cylindrical face - I didn't realize that the outer curve of the hole is split. As you said the other curves formed by the hole with other faces of the cylinder is not split. Its interesting that you find the split edge useful.

I would then just split the hole faces -

1. Create 2 work axes, one for cylinder and one for hole.

2. Create a workplane passing through these 2 axes

3. Use SplitFace command, select the hole faces and workplane as splitting tool. 

Regards,

Anand

Fusion360 Development

[mbostonsprint · Accepted solution]

Anand,

Thanks for the detailed discussion of slot creation. I had explored this problem earlier in the thread you referenced, but the explanantions forthcoming were not as useful. I have used similar techniques as you have indicated, but it appears there are some "editing" dialogues that are new to me, and may be very helpful. Nevertheless, I would think there are easier methods that could be implemented. I will make a post in the features-request area as you suggest. Thanks again --

Best regards

Matt