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solidworks

How can I get a hole feature in a pattern to have its parameters show up in a design table?

I am using Soidworks 2017 and I am working on making a bunch of different sizes of the same part. A good application for a design table. However I have a circular pattern of holes and their placement will not pass to the table. I can control the number of holes and their spacing, but not the important parts like actual hole size and the bolt circle size.

Is there some way to manually pass these parameters into the table? Or automatically? Or is there some other better way to do this?

Any help would be appreciated. I am sure that this topic has been handled before, but I cannot find the right way to ask it in google that bears fruit.

Thanks.

Solution

  • There are two ways to do this. The first is editing the design table within SolidWorks. When you do this, the excel sheet will appear in the graphics area. With a blank header selected, double click on a feature, which will cause its Feature Dimensions to appear. When you select a dimension (ie. Diameter, Depth, etc.), it will add the dimension name to the Design Table (ie. C'Bore Depth@Sketch3).

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    The other way to do this, is editing the design table in its own window. If you do it this way, you'll need to get the name of the dimension from the model. Similar to before, double click on a feature to show its dimension, then select the dimension you would like to control. In the Primary value field, you'll see the name of the dimension (ie. C'Bore Depth@sketch3). You can add these to the headers in the excel sheet with Copy + Paste.

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    A few notes. If you're having issues getting the dimensions to appear by double clicking on the features, try turning off Instant 3D. This feature often makes the quick edit appear for a new dimension value. Turning off Instant 3D brings up the properties for the dimension.

    Another tip would be to not use a specific sized hole (ie. 1/4" SHCS, but instead use the Custom Hole type. This way, the feature name will not reflect any particular size of hole.

    enter image description here