Want to add your own hole geometry to Hole Wizard?

Here's how:

www.markkulehtola.net/SWHW-own_geometry.pdf

I'm also trying to figure out how to add a own tab to HW...I know I
have to edit swbrowser.mdb, but is there something else...?

regards
Markku
CSWP, www.finsw.net, www.markkulehtola.net

 

And how, might I ask, did you discover all this? Inside help?

WT

 

I have heard of this developer mode of solidworks, but have never
tried it.
Can the calloutformat.txt file be associated to the legacy hole you
create?

 

It seems to me that once the /d option is known, the rest can be worked out
by experimentation. The /d switch was posted here years ago, so it's no
secret.

 

I didn't know that that was there. I noticed that there is a menu
item called "Check Radius of Curvature". I tried it, but it didn't
seem to do anything. Googled it and got nothing. Any idea how it
works? Seems like a very useful feature. I can't tell you how many
times I've needed to know the radius of an imported surface/edge and
all SW gives is the arc length.

 

Markku,

Seems you missed a couple of critical points. The sketch must start
(the first point you pick) at the origin. Also, this point must be
fixed (the little anchor). Otherwise, this works well. Another handy
tool to have. I have to wonder why it's semi-secret though.

 

One of the things I am having trouble with is adding /d to the SW
shortcut on my desktop. I used to be able to do this but can't find it
now.

TOP

 

Go to your SW folder and create a new shortcut form the exe file. Then you
can add it to that one.

WT

 

Does anyone know how to point Solidworks to use .ske files in a
different folder location?

 

No idea, sorry

 

Try "Tools-Check" if you need the minimum radius of curvature.

 

Thanks, I'll add that to the guide. I just wonder what other useful
stuff there might be...

 

Just a wild guess...can you define a path for the sketch name in
holewzd.idx?

 

Why is it that you can look at the same tool a hundred times and never
see it's full usefulness? I never thought to use this to get the
curvature of an edge. This seems to give an adequate approximation of
the radius of the curve. Won't work well on a spline (you'd need the
curvature at the point you are trying to match), but it will certainly
reduce the number of times I sit here scratching my head. Thanks.

 

I ended up just saving the .ske files to a central location that
allowed other users to copy to their Solidworks directory.
So far, I have been able to save an existing .ske file as another name
and place it in the holewzd.idx file, but I cannot get SW to recognize
new dimensions added to the .ske file. For Example: If I add a
dimension to the acborblnd2.ske file and add "Thru Hole Dia." to the
holewzd.idx file respectively, the dimension shows up as "Thru Hole
Dia." when you insert a counterbore with the hole wizard, but when I
try to call it from a drawing using <hw-thruholedia> I get .000.

 

Maybe .ske is like .sldlfp? You can't really edit it after the 1st
save.

 

Maybe .ske is like .sldlfp? You can't really edit it after the 1st

If I may jump in here:

..sldlfp can be edited and saved again.

 

Weird, had so many problems with it years ago that I thought it wasn't
really possible.