Best way to transfer holes from one part to other

[T_F]

I've an assembly with a lot of parts assembled in a plate.

Now I need to transfer the holes from the assembled parts, to the main plate. I need to mantain them parametrized according the dimension of the hole of each part, and the same time the amount of the holes of each part (pattern by reference).

Doing this hole by hole, or even part by part, is really painfull...

I've tested IFX, and I think isn't that versatible, because when we add or remove screws, we need to do a lot a things to update.

My question is, what methods do you use to make this task?

[tbraxton]

Using one of the top down design tools is advisable. To use these tools you must have advanced assembly extension or equivalent.

A layout (.lay file) or a skeleton would work but you will need to plan for the design intent and apply that to existing models which may take more time than you have (it is usually better to use these tools from the beginning of modeling). If you use the skeleton to define the location constraints for each assembled component with holes you can modify a single model (skeleton) and have the plate and component placement update with the holes and any other relevant features.

I would spend some time to consider design intent and re-use and then determine how to create something useful that fits your design process.

You could also define UDFs for the holes of each type of component assembled to the plate, You would then define the location of the components in the plate model and the UDF would add the hole patterns for you. If you use UDFs you could include more than just the holes to be added to the plate. If you will reuse these components in the future the time required for UDF creation will pay off for sure.

[OS_8225324]

so i have found a way to do it , so basically first you have take both part to assembly , and assemble them as the screw should match the other part where screws should be then go following tab

tools\screws select the reference line and surface where screw head should be after screw has been fasted 

go to model tree section and right click on the part and select make new subassembly ,then your part will automatically be created according to the screws.   

[TomU]

No good way in Creo, especially not 'out of the box'.  😞

At a previous company I worked at, we built our own custom hole UDFs.  Each of these groups of features started with a sketched curve that denoted the faster type and size.  In the child part there was another set of UDFs (and corresponding mapkeys) that would copy this parent curve into the child model and then use it to control both the placement and size of the child's hole feature.  These worked quite well but took a lot of time up front to build and perfect.

Since none of your existing holes were built this way, you're only good option is to manually create hole features in the child parts, one hole at a time.  You can create them 'coaxially' (by selecting the axis of the parent hole when placing the child hole), but there is no good way to make sure the sizes actually stay synchronized.

We too explored IFX in the past, but the requirement to build axes in advance for every hole seems clunky and redundant.  Maybe that's changed in later releases...

Here's a post I wrote back in 2013 on this same topic.  I don't think much has changed.

https://community.ptc.com/t5/Detailing-MBD-MBE/Using-the-built-in-standard-hole-features/m-p/326710

[Chris3]

If you haven't already you should consider point patterns.

[T_F]

Yes I've considered that, but how can I mantain the parametrization between the holes, regard hole size?

This is something that I would love to have in CREO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXB1eyolsK4

[TomU]

Imagine if Creo could do this:

[T_F]

You are right...

[Tdaugherty]

Generally speaking, we would normally use IFX for this type of thing. You can use the reassemble command to link all of your holes together. When redefining holes, you can choose to redefine all reassembled holes at the same time. 

As you mentioned that you don't want to use IFX, there is another method that I use sometimes that you might find helpful. It involves copy and paste special. All you need to do is copy your feature and use the paste special command. Choose Advanced Reference Configuration to choose the new references for the copied feature. 

After the feature is copied, it will be dependent upon the parent feature. This makes updating hole sizes much quicker. I've attached a quick video for reference. 

[T_F]

Your method looks good, but have you parametrized the dimension of the first hole, with the hole from first part?

[Tdaugherty]

In this example, the tapped holes in the blue part are all linked together via the paste special operation. They are not linked to the size of the hole in gray part. Since the gray parts are all the same (typical use case for us), it's not a big deal to change the size of the hole. Simply put, I would need to change the size of the first hole in the blue part and the gray part. 

You could parameterize the size of the holes in both parts, likely at a skeleton level, if you wanted to keep them linked together. To me, that's a bit cumbersome and would lead me back to the IFX path. That functionality is already built into IFX. Another video attached for reference. 

Side note: IFX can be a little slow and clunky at times. 

[T_F]

Yes, IFX is much slower. and if you change the amount of screws we need to update them, is not automatic.

[Tdaugherty]

How are you editing the amount of screws? If you use point patterns as @Chris3 mentioned, you can just add another point and the number of fasteners will update accordingly. Video attached (Point Patterns with IFX)

We use UDFs as @TomU mentioned to create axis patterns for fasteners. We use point patterns exclusively. It's not as fast as the SolidWorks example but combining UDFs with mapkeys gets you close. Video attached (UDF Point Patterns)