[Sinistersam]

I am trying to make a simple part with a hole pattern that repeats, taking in account of overall length changes. For instance, if I wanted a .25" hole in a part, 0.5" from the end, and spaced out 1" between holes, throughout the total length of the part. How would I go about accomplishing this? Any help is appreciated.

[hoidahl]

Hey Sinister,
What you can do is draw the .25" hole dimension it to the position you would like, then use the linear pattern option in the sketch menu. Then choose axis, distance between, number of occurences, and you can choose an angle if you want or set to 0. Hope this helps.

[Sinistersam]

Yeah, that's the way I had actually done it. What I was shooting for was a way to have the number of holes automatically update to length changes in the part.

[cam1]

Many roads lead to Rome....
Sketch a line and constrain it to 1/2 inch from each end of the bar (this is the CL of the desired pattern).
Next place a hole on the end of the line (use hole features)
Then use a curve driven patten set to "equal spacing", and select the number of holes you want.
This way when you change the bar length the hole pitch changes.
Lookup curve driven patterns in help for some tips.

regards

[Sinistersam]

Yeah, that road leads to Rome also, but it takes you through some rough country along the way. Thanks for the help though. I did learn a bit about patterns. It's not exactly what I was trying to accomplish, however. What I wanted was a way to clone a hole enough times, and a set distance between them, to reach the end of a bar, no matter what the length of the bar may be. Now, I realize that I could just do a pattern command like yourself or hoidahl mentioned, and set the occurrences to a billion trillion, and that would most likely cover any length desired. What I was trying to get away from was "select the number of holes you want". I want it to know how many holes I want automatically. This may not even be possible, but if it is, it would be nice to know. Thanks for all the help so far guys.

[JerryFlyGuy]

Sinister, CAM laid out exactly how to do this. If you want to have a variable length bar, w/ a hole 1/2" from either end and a set # of holes, then his, is the proper way to accomplish it.

If you are using bars which have a length that corresponds to the c-c dim of your holes, then you are correct. Put in a pattern w/ 1000 holes and the ones which don't 'hit' anything won't show up.

If you want to have a variable length bar with a pattern of hole which always start and end 1/2" from either end of the bar, and the hole pattern c-c is not set in stone but must fit into some min/max numbers then this can be accomplished w/ DriveWorks Express [if you have '08]

One way or the other, what you need done.. can be accomplished..

[apache405]

sinister--

you are asking how to feed the pattern feature's "number of instances" a variable based on the length of the bar, correct?

you might find something in documentation about how to do this under design automation or similar. if you have maintenance, call your SW dealer and ask them.

[Sinistersam]

sinister--

you are asking how to feed the pattern feature's "number of instances" a variable based on the length of the bar, correct?

Exactly.

Thanks for the input guys.