Hole wizard: controlling counterbore distance from the far side

[laukejas]

Hi,

I am trying to create a Hole Wizard Favorite to create standardized holes for M3 hex screws. Such a hole should always have a fixed counterbore distance from the far side of the hole, so that the screw always sticks out by a pre-determined distance. This is critical, because the mating parts will also have standardized holes that must have enough depth to accept that screw (but not too much):

The issue is, Hole Wizard defines counterbore depth from the near side, not the far side:

Hole Wizard feature allows adding Head Clearance, but that is just another number on top of Counterbore Depth. Now of course, clearly an equation could solve this:

But unfortunately, equation is saved in part scope, not Hole Wizard scope, meaning it does not get added to Hole Wizard Favorites or whatever. I would have to rebuild this equation every time I wanted to use this standardized hole, which defeats the whole purpose.

Now, Advanced Hole actually does exactly what I need here - it allows to specify counterbore depth from the far side by using Offset From Surface:

But the reason why I don't want to do use Advanced Hole is because it does not support 3D Sketch for hole locations, while Hole Wizard does. If I need to create a whole bunch of these holes all around my part on different surfaces, doing it with a Hole Wizard and 3D Sketch means I have a single hole defining feature rather than separate features for each face, which saves a lot of downstream work (for example, it means I can use just a single Pattern Driver Component Pattern feature to fill all these holes with screws, rather than having to create multiple features for each hole feature).

So my question is, is there some clever way to define that counterbore depth in Hole Wizard from the far side, in a way that would be saved into Favorites for reuse? All the info necessary to define that depth like this is already there, I just can't seem to find a way to connect it.

[SPerman]

I have tried deleting that dimension in the sketch, and then adding one from the bottom. The problem is the hole callout in drafting uses the dimension as the CB depth. It doesn't recognize that the dimension is from a different face.

[laukejas]

I have tried deleting that dimension in the sketch, and then adding one from the bottom. The problem is the hole callout in drafting uses the dimension as the CB depth. It doesn't recognize that the dimension is from a different face.

Yeah, I tried that as well. I even tried re-purposing the existing dimension (changing attachment points without deleting it), but it didn't work - the CB Depth is then shown as negative number in the Hole Wizard editor. SW has a really funky way of connecting Hole Wizard UI with these dimensions. Anyway, I'm not even sure that any of the sketch changes are saved in Hole Wizard Favorites. I think it just saves the UI input values.

[AlexB]

Have you tried setting that dimension to “Driven” and adding your other fixed dimension?

[laukejas]

Have you tried setting that dimension to “Driven” and adding your other fixed dimension?

Yes. It works for that instance of Hole Wizard, but after I save it as Favorite and use it on another part, original sketch is restored. Like I said, I suspect Favorites don't save sketches, just the UI inputs...

[laukejas]

Okay, guys, I found a solution... A really weird one Thought I'd share it with you if you happen to need something similar. So basically I realized that I could trick SW by placing the Hole Wizard positioning sketch on the bottom of the part rather than the top (so the hole is upside down), and then in Custom size, set Counterbore Diameter to hole size (3mm), and set the Hole Diameter to counterbore diameter (6mm). Basically just swap these numbers. With that, the last input (Counterbore Depth) now becomes measured from the bottom side of the hole, rather than the top:

And... That's it! Simple as that. I tested it out, and it works perfectly. The only caveat is that I have to remember to place Hole Wizard points sketch to the underside of the part rather than the top. But actually, this might be even better - ever had cases when the top surface is not flat, and you had to create an extra plane for Hole Wizard sketch, and then do yet another Extruded Cut to clear up material up from the counterbore..? Something like this?

Well, no more! With this diameter-swap method, you can do it in a single Hole Wizard feature, no extra planes or cuts required

Hope this helps! And thank you for your input, guys

P.S. I just realized that this would probably display wrong in the drawing Hole Callout. But I think it is possible to modify the callout template? It could be swapped as well so that it displays counterbore as a counterbore and hole as a hole.

[josh]

This is quite clever. I like it.

I'm pretty sure you can actually create a derived standard in your Toolbox browser and edit the diameters there so that you can pick this type of hole anytime. You can then modify your calloutformat.txt file to properly call out your holes automatically.