Why can't I resize a hole using Direct Edit?

[DRoam]

I need to resize a hole in a Derived Part using Direct Edit, but Inventor isn't letting me. I can't select the hole while Size mode is active, and if I select the hole while Move mode is active and then switch to Size mode, Inventor tells me, "Inventor Holes or Threads cannot be changed with the Size operation and have been removed from the selection set." Why in the world is this the case? I thought this was the very purpose of Direct Edit's Size tool? Am I doing something wrong?

[Frederick_Law]

Can you Direct Edit and offset the hole?

[DRoam]

Yes I can.

[Tom_Sturtevant · Accepted solution]

Inventor is not able to update Hole / Thread info if you resize the hole.  If you create a 0.5 hole, then resize to 0.6 your drawing hole note will still say 0.5.

Thanks,

T.0.M.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Derek,

Like Tom mentioned here, Direct Edit deals with geometry directly. It does not change the feature recipe. For example, if you have a Thicken feature and you change the thickness using Direct Edit, the thickness parameter remains the same.

When we were working on Direct Edit, I recalled our Beta users specifically want to make sure the Hole/Thread remain unchanged. But, you can relocate the holes though.

Many thanks!

[IgorMir]

Hi Derek;

You have mentioned that you want to resize the hole in the Derived part. My though would be to introduce a complete new hole in the derived part all together. Why the Direct Edit?

Cheers,

Igor.

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@DRoam wrote:

I need to resize a hole in a Derived Part using Direct Edit, but Inventor isn't letting me. I can't select the hole while Size mode is active, and if I select the hole while Move mode is active and then switch to Size mode, Inventor tells me, "Inventor Holes or Threads cannot be changed with the Size operation and have been removed from the selection set." Why in the world is this the case? I thought this was the very purpose of Direct Edit's Size tool? Am I doing something wrong?

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[lena.talkhina]

Hello @DRoam !

Always and now great to see you on Inventor forum!

Do you find any comment helpful? Don't hesitate to accept a solution!

[DRoam]

Hi Lena, thanks for the reminder!

Thanks everyone for the replies. I understand why the limitation is there now.

@IgorMir, thanks for the suggestion, but I needed to do this to several holes, so that would be very time consuming. Plus, I wanted centerpoints on those holes in drawings to remain attached.

@johnsonshiue, I think there may be a way to remove that limitation but not risk false hole/thread data. When we create a "hole" via a circular extrusion, it of course has no hole/thread data. However, we can still pull a hole/thread note on it, and Inventor (quite intelligently) will create the proper type of thru/distance note, even with quantities. Could performing a direct-edit resize on a Hole feature simply wipe out the hole/thread information and replace it with a "dumb" face like an Extrusion creates? Then the hole/thread note wouldn't be trying to use the old incorrect hole/thread info. It would just use the actual size of the hole, just like with an Extrusion hole.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Derek,

I am pretending to think like a developer now, though you know well I am not a developer. In theory, anything is possible. The workflow you are talking about sounds very interesting. But, it can be technically challenging. The issue here is that Hole and Extrude are two distinct features. Their modeling procedure may be similar (based on Sweep). The underlying data model and feature recipe are totally different. At the moment, there is no such paradigm to convert Feature A to Feature B in Inventor, no matter how closely related they are. The closest thing is to delete Feature A and recreate Feature B.

I think it is a bit overkill to introduce a brand new paradigm to resolve this issue. I think the better solution is to enable Direct Edit movement to change the Hole/Thread feature itself directly. It is sort of doable via API already. You could create a command altering the Hole feature (change the diameter) without having to use the Edit dialog. For simple Hole, this should work relatively easily. The tricky thing is about spec Hole (threaded). As you know the hole spec is discrete. From M3 to M4, the change is not continuous. The Direct Edit movement will be jumpy.

Direct Edit was designed mainly for imported geometry as a means to edit it parametrically. For Inventor parts you created from scratch, it is better to change the feature individually.

Many thanks!

[IgorMir]

Hi Derek;

In such a case - I would use iPart. Here is a sample of it. IV2020 format.

Cheers,

Igor.

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@DRoam wrote:

@IgorMir, thanks for the suggestion, but I needed to do this to several holes, so that would be very time consuming. Plus, I wanted centerpoints on those holes in drawings to remain attached.

[DRoam]

Hi Johnson, thanks for the detailed reply! My thought was not so much to "replace" the hole with an extrusion, it was more to just remove the hole/thread data from the hole's faces/edges, thereby converting it to regular "dumb" geometry which the Hole/Thread note would try to measure as such. I'm making the completely unfounded assumption that hole/thread data is "stored" on the hole's faces and edges, and that that data can be "removed" from those faces/edges. If those assumptions are false, feel free to disregard that suggestion 😄

So, I'd like to clarify the reason I want to do this is. I used a single hole feature to cut a plain (non-threaded) hole thru multiple parts in a multi-body part. Later down the road, I realized I needed those holes on one of the parts to be a different size, while leaving them the same in the rest of the parts. This was after I'd created constraints on those holes as well as made a drawing dimensioning them. If I modified the original Hole feature, it would change it for every part, which is not what I want. If I deleted and recreated the Hole, I would have to repair my constraints and dimensions. So, I thought, this would be a perfect use for Direct Edit. Normally, it would be. I thought I would just resize the holes on the one part and be done with it. But then I discovered the limitation.

It's situations like these that Direct Edit is perfect for, so it would be great if it would just support everything it's capable of, and not arbitrarily block resizing holes if they were created with the Hole tool.

I would be fine if threaded holes were the exception to this, it would make more sense to block direct edit on those. But if there's some way to support resizing plain holes that were created with the Hole feature (either by "removing" the hole/thread data from the hole, or by empowering Direct Edit to actually update the hole/thread data with the new size), that would be great.

[DRoam · Accepted solution]

I went ahead and created an Idea request for this. Hopefully there will be enough support to warrant making the change.

Anyone interested, please vote here: Allow resizing Inventor holes using Direct Edit. Thanks!