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J
JB_91593873-Newcomer
3-Newcomer
January 12, 2023
Question

Legacy Custom Hole Chart Options?

  • January 12, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 1250 views

Hello all,

We have a dozen legacy custom hole charts (Counterbore, countersink, UNF Pattern, UNF Single, etc.) that we would like to replace with three new charts by utilizing the "Setting Thread Note Format Based on Hole Feature Characteristics" as laid out here: Thread Notes. I don't know the history on why they were setup this way, but now we are trying to streamline.

The issue is, if we remove the legacy hole charts, any existing models utilizing those charts will be broken - we would have thousands of models with many holes each that would need to be updated to the new hole charts.

If we retain the legacy charts, it would lead to confusion due to similar chart names.

 

Is there any way to get around this issue? Maybe retaining the charts within the system, but somehow hiding them in the standard hole tool? Or perhaps setting up a relationship between legacy charts names and new charts to automatically convert old models? Surely other companies must be running into this issue also...?

I also came across the option for embedded hole files, but unfortunately it is a little too late for that to help here.

2 replies

T
23-Emerald IV
TomU23-Emerald IV
23-Emerald IV
January 12, 2023

I recently fought this same battle.  Unfortunately there is no way to keep existing hole features happy if the old hole files are no longer available.  Any redefinition of an existing hole feature will instead default to the first thread type and screw size available.

 

It would be great if PTC could add some method to hide obsolete hole files from the user interface while still allowing existing hole features to access them.  The embedded option doesn't work because it would need to have been enabled all along, but that causes other issues if you ever need to make any changes since the embedded hole files will ignore changes to the non-embedded versions.

 

I ended up doing three things:

  1. Remove all obsolete hole files from the end user's Creo configuration.  They only get the new hole files.
  2. Leave all obsolete hole files in the CAD worker's Creo configuration (along with the new hole files.)  That way nothing ever gets messed up during publishing if a hole feature is still depending on the old hole tables.
  3. Built a SmartAssembly program that interrogates each hole feature to determine what it used to be, figure out what the replacement should be, and then update each hole feature to use the new hole table.  This also allows us to do some things that can't currently done with the out-of-the-box hole tables.  Things like setting counterbore depths based on actual screw lengths and setting thread depths based on a company standard.

TomU_0-1673560990839.png

 

    J
    JB_91593873-NewcomerAuthor
    3-Newcomer
    January 16, 2023

    Thanks for the response Tom.

    I agree that the option to hide obsolete hole files would be the ideal solution.

    For now, we will likely end up with a similar setup as what you have done. Good thought on the SmartAssembly tool - I've never used it, but I need to look into it now!

    J
    JB_91593873-NewcomerAuthor
    3-Newcomer
    August 14, 2024

    Bumping this conversation as we are still struggling with the issue. Does anyone have a solution?

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