Solidworks has some pretty powerful tools when maneuvering around the solid world, and hole wizard should for sure be integrated on your “S” key.
“Select face, THEN select Hole Wizard” Most of us have probably opened Hole Wizard before selecting a face, and $%@ when we saw the 3DSketch.
A few weeks back Josh Mings who runs SolidSmack posted 8 Fiery Guidelines to Ignite Feature-based Modeling in SolidWorks what made me pay a little more attention to my way around Solidworks.
So the task is a simple housing for an aircraft tester device. However the part calls for holes on a cylindrical face.
3D Hole Wizard. When using Hole Wizard on a cylinder, we can go ahead and break the rule. Start Hole Wizard before selecting the cylindrical surface, and work through the desired parameters until the Positioning tap.
Positioning the 3D point.
When positioned the point on the cylindrical surface make a SmartDimension from the sketch point to the flat end face (face, because this results in a perpendicular Dim.) on this part it is 1.8125″
Control the point angular around the cylinder
We are going to control the point angular around the cylinder by using sketch geometry.
Still being in the 3D sketch mode, we are going use the line tool, Ctrl-click the face we previously added our dimension too. (that will constrain our line to that face) Move cursor near center until a black ring shows up. Draw a line AlongX to edge of circle( Should act like when making Horizontal line in 2D sketch). Draw another line from center to edge of outer circle but dimension this to previous line like 45 degrees.
Now it is relation time…….
Create AlongY sketch relation between the angular endpoint and the 3D Hole Wizard position point.
Confirm control over Hole Wizard.
Try to change the angular dimension between the two sketch lines to ensure that the hole act correctly.