Using the hole command to do press/slip fits

[pball]

I'm trying to make it easier for our engineers to add properly sized and dimensioned press/slip fit holes in our parts. We want to show our press/slip fit holes as a nominal thru hole and a counterbore which is the ream size for the press/slip fit. Someone tried adding press/slip fit holes to the clearance.xls but it's not quite working out. I've tweaked it a little and found what seems to be a limitation with the hole command possibly.

The first issue is when I select the counterbore option all sizes below 1/4" disappear from the drop down. I'm guessing Inventor thinks holes under 1/4" don't get counterbored and hides anything smaller, which seems like a weird restriction.

Second issue being the hole command is rounding my 4 decimal ream size to 3 decimal places. In the attached picture you can see some entries in my clearance.xls, the hole command where I selected the 1/4" option, and a drawing which also shows how it rounds the counterbore (ream) diameter.

These two things are making it look like we will just have to manually enter the dimensions in the hole command unless someone has a method for doing something like this. I've also though about using ifeatures or a vba script. The issue I have with ifeatures is having to insert them one at a time and dimensioning them each separately. I'm not aware of a method to insert multiple ifeatures at once on center points outside of sheet metal punch features. As for the vba route I'll just need to find time to code something easy to use.

[lesmfunk]

Autodesk must be on vacation since they haven't replied to this post.

Your first issue can be solved using decimal sizes instead of fractional. I made a fictitious clearance hole for a "0.100" hole and it worked. The head clearance diameter must be larger than the hole size. Don't know how you got the 1/4 hole with 0.2493 head size to work.

I can confirm the second issue. Even the ANSI standard clearance holes are rounded. Reamed holes need to be X.XXXX, not so much clearance holes. But then why is the xls table values X.XXXX for ANSI?

[Mark.Lancaster]

@lesmfunk  "Autodesk must be on vacation since they haven't replied to this post."  <---  This is a user forum..   Just to let you know Autodesk may or may not respond to postings.

[pball]

Thanks for the reply. I've pretty much given up on this approach since the second issue seems impossible to work around. I'm now working on a VBA macro with a dialog that lets you apply PF/SF holes instead of using the hole command. I'm still trying to figure out how to have the gui work, making the actual holes is a cake walk compared to the process of getting using input lol.

[lesmfunk]

@Mark.Lancaster, my comment was only there to catch the attention of Autodesk (or one of their agents). Did it work?  I am one of those who still values Autodesk participation in these discussions. Now back to topic:

If Clearance.xls is editable, it should at least make use of the precision contained within it from factory. I think many users could use this feature for close/press fit holes.

[mdavis22569]

Make a dimension style to what you're asking for the 4 place, 3 place etc..

As for press fit/slip fit ..you can do tolerances in the hole min/max ..H/F h/f...

you want it in the hole xls I understand, but this is an option ...