Holes on Surfaces

[JWayman]

Hello,

I am learning about surfaces, so I need some help.
I have a domed surface which I can thicken to make a solid part. I need to make some holes around the periphery, normal to the surface.
I know I can make a hole referenced to a point on a surface and it will make its axis normal to that surface. However, I can't figure out how to make my on-surface datum points. I projected a curve onto the surface and patterned a bunch of points along the curve to create the hole locations. Those points, apparently, are not on a surface (although, clearly, they are). I have my accuracy set to a small, absolute value.
I'm in a dilemma:
If I create the points on a curve projected onto a surface, I can place the points where I want them, but I can't make a hole using them.
If I create the points on the surface, I can make a hole using them, but I can't locate them the way I want to.


[cid:image001.png@01CE9FF6.34107CB0]

I want to make the holes dimensioned relative to the edges as shown. I just can't work out how.

I would welcome any suggestions.


Thanks,


John

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[dgschaefer]

If you project the curve and create the points and then create an axis using the points and normal to the surface, can you place the hole using the axis & surface?

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[MikeBrattoli]

Doug is right - that will work.

Never have understood why you can't pick points on a curve to place a hole normal to a surface - you can do it for points NOT on a curve on the same surface.....ahhh, consistency!

Mike Brattoli
Moen Incorporated
Global Product Development Process Management
Administrator - PLM
Creo 2.0 M050
25300 Al Moen Drive
North Olmsted, OH 44070

[rfoster]

I was able to create a pattern of points on a solid surface by picking an intent surface, followed by "pt feature" and picking two datum planes to locate it. I then patterned the point, then hole referencing a surface pt., finally ref patterned the hole.

See picture and load the part file.

This was created in WF3

Any questions?

Henry R. Foster
PE Support
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[JWayman]

No.
Still having difficulty.
I can create the points and the axes, but I can't select the surface to locate the hole.
If I select the axis, the hole is coaxial, but I cannot select the surface to place the start of the hole along the axis.

The problem, in words, is that I need to re-create, in Pro/E, a drawing that was done in Autocad. The original drawing shows a domed shape, with a varying radius of curvature in both directions, and with a series of mounting holes around its perimeter. The mounting holes are dimensioned at a true distance apart along the inner surface of the dome and are shown, by implication, as normal to that inner surface.

I can create holes normal to surfaces, but I can't work out how to create them dimensioned at a true distance along the surface.

I am pretty much stumped now. I have tried everything I can think of, and have tried everything I think you chaps have suggested.

This is not an unusual application, I would think. There must be tractor windscreens that are bolted in place, or maybe covers on yachts, or something. I am obviously making harder work of it than is necessary.
In my defence, I have only just returned from vacation...


I would be grateful for any further suggestions.

Regards,


John

[dgschaefer]

What if you add a plane to the mix, normal to the axis and through the point? Use this as your placement surface for your co-axial hole.  This would, by definition but not explicitly, be tangent to the surface and therefore a hole normal to this plane would be normal to the surface.

It certainly is the long way around, but it should be robust and get you there I hope.

I'd love to take a stab at the actual part, if you can share it.

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[ptc-1932745]

I have had to add fastener holes and patterns of holes to parts with 'airfoil' faces, and can agree that this is probably the only way I know of to get a hole normal to a face of a surface at a point.


* First create point on surface

* Create an Axis through the point normal to the surface the point is on.

* Create a plane through the point, normal to the axis.

* Use the 'hole' feature to create the hole feature using the plane and the axis

Of course the hole depth is slightly shallow if you use the perimeter of the hole to check the depth, but this gets you close.


Christopher F. Gosnell

FPD Company
124 Hidden Valley Road
McMurray, PA 15317

[dgschaefer]

I think I've got what you need; it took some trickery. John said he was using WF4.

Because you said the curved surface has multiple radii, I created the extruded feature with 3 arcs.  That was going to create a problem later as the pattern was going to have to span over the 3 surfaces created and it would fail.  To solve that, I used edit > convert to > spline to make Pro/E treat the 3 arcs as a single entity so it created one surface.

Since your holes are equally spaced in the projection onto the surface, I started with a curve on the top plane the length of the pattern.  I placed a point at the start of that curve, an axis through the point and a point where the axis intersected the curved surface.  I patterned each of those individually.  It may work if you group and pattern them too, I didn't try.

I then created an axis through the second point and normal to the curved surface and a plane through the second point and normal to that axis. This gave me what I needed to make the hole feature.

The issue became in patterning.  I tried patterning the features individually and it didn't work. Because the plane references two patterned objects (normal to the axis & through the point), when patterned it would follow the point but not change angle.  No features failed, but the holes were the wrong angle and off in space.  I tried making one group out of all the patterned features with the same results.  I solved this by grouping the second axis, the normal plane and the hole feature and reference patterning that group.

I think this is what you were looking for.

[cid:image004.jpg@01CEAF9D.8BBABB40]

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