Hole table & holes in non-planar faces

[AlexB]

I am looking into using a hole table for some things parts within Solidworks and haven't really used them much in the past. It appears useful for quite a few scenarios that I will run into with our parts. For holes such as the one in the image below, the Hole Table tool won't let me pick the edge or the face that the hole is in to get the hole added to the table.

Is this only a good solution for planar/normal faces only?

This seems like one of those things that's 90% of the way completed but Dassault never bothered to finish it.

image.png (40.83 KiB) Viewed 1009 times

[SamSpade]

It seems like you can select the edge of the hole only if your view is perpendicular to it (where the hole looks like a hole and not an oval), but the Hole Table won't indicate the actual size of the hole, only its location. You might have to do that manually (probably not recommended).

[AlexB]

It seems like you can select the edge of the hole only if your view is perpendicular to it (where the hole looks like a hole and not an oval), but the Hole Table won't indicate the actual size of the hole, only its location. You might have to do that manually (probably not recommended).

I did try that and it still wouldn't let me select an edge. Not a huge deal, I am just asking more to determine how to use it so I know when, and for what type of part, it will be useful.

[jcapriotti]

Are these holes punched in a flat then the part formed or are they drilled after? Are they normal to the bottom flat face? Can you upload the part?

[AlexB]

Are these holes punched in a flat then the part formed or are they drilled after? Are they normal to the bottom flat face? Can you upload the part?

Sorry, can't upload the part. They're normal to the flat face shown in the picture, but they are drilled through the curved face. The part is an extrusion where the inner wall is an offset of the outer wall. Nothing fancy.

[jcapriotti]

Are the holes cut extrudes or hole wizard?

[AlexB]

Are the holes cut extrudes or hole wizard?

All of them are hole wizard.

[jcapriotti]

I got it to work partially in 2022. I created the holes with the hole wizard and also as a cut extrude. The problem is the edges are really non planar splines although SolidWorks attempts to get the center. It fails however to get the size.

Manually added dimensions work so the dimension tool is doing some extraction magic to get the center and size. The hole table however is only half way there. I could add a size dimension, then link the cell in the table to the size. Leaves a lot that can go wrong later IMO.