Counterbore Holes in Pyramid

I am looking for advice on how to counterbore boles down into the
sloped sides of a pyramid.

Essentially, I have a four-sided pyramid (with a square base) and I
want to counterbore four holes down through the pyramid. The holes
should be located on the diagonals of the base (the edge where the
sides meet, from above), about half way from the center vertical axis
of the pyramid and the corners of the base. The axes of the holes
should be parallel to the center vertical axis of the pyramid.

The problem I'm having is that I get an error indicating that my hole
wizard location is undefined. Any thoughts on how to get this done?

Thanks, in advance.

Doug

 

Best to start the hole wizard from the "point plane" that made the pyramid.
(I'm guessing you lofted a square sketch with a point on a parallel plane.)
Tell hole wizard "through hole" and extend the depth of the counterbore to
suit your depth needs. Locate the center points where appropriate and that
should do it.
Bob

 

Just did a test and what I did was create a pyramid using a sqr sketch
and a point and did a loft.
I then selected one of the triangle faces and created a reference sketch
for the mid point of the corners.
Then I created a parallel plane which references the sqr base and the
midpoint sketch.
Then I select one of the pyramid faces and the hole wizard and added a
counterbore hole.
I then RMB on the point for the hole sketch and redefined the sketch
plane to be on the new midpoint plane.
Now, that should place it where you want if I read this right??
But,.. there maybe a problem with this (depending on the faces/planes
chosen)... the direction of the cbore maybe pointing in the wrong
direction?
If so, just go into the hole wizard and most of the time it will flip
back.
What remains is the cbore depth may need to be changed and you have to
do a circular pattern.

...

 

You can always create a block, add the c'bored holes and then form the
pyramid. If the part isn't exceptionally long relative to its base,
that might be how hte machinist would make it anyway.

Jim S.

 

Paul

re <just go into the hole wizard and most of the time it will flip back>

The decision to leave the plane direction indeterminate (by the user), and
volatile (in terms of the code) has had many undesirable (and doubtless
unintended) effects.

I can understand them trying to "protect" us from having to worry our pretty
little heads over such trivia, but to me this is another situation where, by
trying to be clever on our behalf, the software frustrates our efforts and
diminishes itself.

Directions flipping from one SP to the next is just one indication that this
was an unwise strategy, and the inability of the hole wizard to lock on to a
defined, flippable plane direction is another.

It seems to me that when we place a plane, we need to know, as of right,
which (face normal) direction is positive, and be able to flip it if
necessary. When we flip it, it should stay flipped through future version
changes, let alone SPs.

In the situation you describe, one way to force the issue is to define the
end conditions as "up to surface", and then pick the bottom face of the
pyramid. Unlike a cut-extrude, this does force the direction to flip.

 

Andrew,

You're absolutely right!

Maybe, just maybe,.. if enough prismatic designers (which make up the
majority of SW users,.. how can that be!??) request this be fixed, SW
Corp will actually address the Hole Wizard??????????

Any bets it will be fixed in the next release or ever be fixed????????

....

 

I just did what you what to do using SWX 2k3.

I drew a 30mm square on the top plane.
I extruded the square @ 15 degs for 15mm.
I rolled the model over on the bottom surface (the original square), I used the hole wizard to put a hole 7mm off each of the
sides..making the hole centerlines on the intersecting edges.
I then made an offset plane 5mm from the bottom surface toward the point of the pyramid.
I turned the pyramid upright and selected the new plane, setting the view a perpendicular to the plane.
On that plane, I drew a circle and added a relationship to constrain the circle concentric to the arcs of the holes which are
now being viewed as circles.
I extrude/cut the circle from the pyramid.

I can send it to you if you want
R. Wink

 

I'm having a hard time understanding what's broken? I use the hole wizard
many times every day and don't have any trouble with it. This might be a
case where I don't realize something is wrong until it's pointed out. Can
you elaborate on your problems with the 'wiz?

Richard

 

Hi Doug,

You might just also try to make a blind cut extrude from the base
(single hole plus pattern later or just 4 round blind holes). Then a
larger hole thru the top on that blind face for the c'bore.

It's a plain vanilla andswear. I see a couple responses of how to
fool the hole wizard, but why even resort to the wizard if he's being
foolish and not behaving?

Regards,

SMA

NOBODY BEATS THE WIZ . . .

 

Richard

What we're commiserating about is that, when you use the HW to place (say) a
counterbored hole on a *plane*, rather than a face, the HW arbitrarily
decides which direction is down. (In the case of a face, into the part is
automatically 'down', and there is no problem)
In the pure plane case, if it guesses wrong (50% of the time), there is no
"flip direction" command, to reverse the direction of the hole, either
directly, or indirectly by flipping the plane. You have to use one of the
various workarounds which have already been described.

This seems to arise from two unconnected characteristics historically
designed into SldWks.
Firstly, the hole wizard was not originally designed to be usable on a
plane. Originally, it only worked on faces. The extra functionality seems to
have been tacked on without due diligence.

Secondly (and this is a much larger problem which I tried to bring to users'
attention by piggy-backing on this HW issue ):
We are given no means to discover or influence the "direction" of any
construction plane we create. This creates numerous difficulties, and not
just for the user; even the code cowboys gets confused.
Features whose conformation relies on plane directionality have sometimes
screwed up when that directionality gets reversed, when opened under a
different SP within the same release version.

I have even (very occationally) had models where (by inference) the
direction of a given plane has flipped from one configuration to another.

It seems to prove the adage that: what is not measured is not controlled.

 

As you so nicely summarized, this is a royal pain in the ass. What really
gets my knickers in a twist is that they even give us the nice front-back
colors so we can tell which way the plane is pointing . Since we can't flip
the direction, this is completely pointless. (No pun intended!) Actually,
I suppose it does have a point; it looks good in demos and gives the people
coming from Pro/E a feeling of familiarity with the interface.
Unfortunately, once they bought the software, they discover the awful truth.

Jerry Steiger
Tripod Data Systems
"take the garbage out, dear"

 

Jerry

I had forgotten about the colours option.Thanks for pointing that out.I
should retract the part of my statement contending that we are not able to
*discover* the direction of planes. This was once true, but changed in, I
think, v2001+?.

I've got a problem model at present with a derived sketch which flips itself
the wrong way in one configuration- I'll use the colours to confirm my
inference that it is the plane direction which is the underlying cause.
Possibly I differ from you in preferring to be able to explicitly verify
that the plane has flipped, but I certainly share your frustration at being
unable to directly rectify it.