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Creating custom .hol files but running into issues

JA_9173935
4-Participant

Creating custom .hol files but running into issues

I'm creating some custom .hol files to inserts like keenserts and helicoils. For the most part, I've got it working, thanks to the youtube channel Creo Parametric, but am running into a few problems I can't seem to find the answer to.

 

  • Can you have multiple thread series in a single .hol file? Reason being, depending on the dash of the insert, it could call for a UNC or UNF.

  • My countersinks don't seem to automatically populate when creating the hole. It seems like I have to manually click it and when I do, it doesn't enter in my diameter I put into the .hol file. Anyone have a work around to this?

7 REPLIES 7
TomU
23-Emerald IV
(To:JA_9173935)


@JA_9173935 wrote:
  • Can you have multiple thread series in a single .hol file? Reason being, depending on the dash of the insert, it could call for a UNC or UNF.


No, but maybe yes.  There is only one field at the top of the hol file for setting thread series, and this is what is used to drive the series parameter used in the hole notes, so out-of-the-box, no.  On the other hand, if you're constructing your own callout syntax anyway, you may be able to add extra columns to your hol file and then reference these columns in your hole note.  You should be able to add an extra column for series and then change it row by row.

 


@JA_9173935 wrote:
  • My countersinks don't seem to automatically populate when creating the hole. It seems like I have to manually click it and when I do, it doesn't enter in my diameter I put into the .hol file. Anyone have a work around to this?


The countersink will not turn on automatically, but when you do turn it on it should automatically set itself to the size specified in the CSINKDIAM column of the hol file.  I can confirm that this definitely works correctly, so maybe double check the hol file values.

 

For reference:

"You can create user-defined parameters by adding columns to the table. The column header will be the parameter name, and its value will be assigned according to the respective row. Add the user-defined columns at the end of the list, after the system-provided columns."

https://support.ptc.com/help/creo/creo_pma/r8.0/usascii/#page/part_modeling/part_modeling/part_nine_sub/Hole_Charts.html#

JA_9173935
4-Participant
(To:TomU)

Awesome. Thanks. I'll try that. While I have you, do you know of a way to make it show limits instead of plus minus tolerances? For example, "[.3]{0:@++.006@#}{1:@--.001@#}" gives it a plus and minus tolerance (Also, I can't seem to make them stack how they would normally. Using this seems to have the +/- tolerance side by side. If you know a fix to this, I'd greatly appreciate it). Is there some black magic to show a limit? For example, the limit would be 100-82. 

TomU
23-Emerald IV
(To:JA_9173935)

Funny you should mention this, I was just having a conversation today with the product manager about this very thing.  The problem you're going to have is the values in the hole note are not dimensions, they are parameters, and you can't turn on tolerances or show limits for parameters.  You might be able to play games and manually add tolerances as dumb text (like you show above), but there is no way to automatically add limit values.  You might be able to add additional columns for each dimension's upper and lower limit, and then use those parameters instead to display the sizes, but that is going to be a ton of work.  You might be better in the long run to just give up on the hole notes and show the actual dimensions instead.

JA_9173935
4-Participant
(To:TomU)

Oh man, I feel like that should be something implemented into Creo in the future. I can see so many benefits to having that option. Sorry for the many questions but I do have one more. I have THREAD_DEPTH and it's values specified but when I use the hole feature, it doesn't automatically populate the correct thread depth value. Is this one that doesn't normally work? I would attach the .hol file but it doesn't seem to allow .hol files. 

TomU
23-Emerald IV
(To:JA_9173935)

THREAD_DEPTH and THREAD_LENGTH are parameters that return the current values, they cannot be used to control the depth.  The only control you have over thread depth is with DEPTH_RATIO (specified at the top of the hol file) and DRILL_DEPTH.

 

From CS99906:

 

TomU_0-1645055207999.png

 

TomU
23-Emerald IV
(To:JA_9173935)

You might find this video interesting:

 

 

Look at how the hole callouts look before and after transitioning to GD&T.

 

Before:

TomU_0-1645052908014.png

 

After:

TomU_1-1645052935878.png

 

pausob
18-Opal
(To:TomU)

FYI, there is (was?) a (hidden?) config.pro option:

always_holetable_for_std_csink yes

which ensured that the countersink value specified in the .hol file would be used.  I recall this option was made specifically for the case where you are using both the counterbore + countersink feature in the standard hole.  Without this option, the system decided its own value for the countersink diameter, something like average of the counterbore diameter and the drill diameter.

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