More beginner questions

[CharlesM479]

Im getting better with SW and I have found a couple of things that have made me a little faster. The parts I have started working on now are square with a hole in the middle with a couple of bolt circles around the hole. I have some mounting holes in the corners of the square block. I want everything to be made off of the center hole so I did an offset plane from the front face and the right face. Then I put an axis through these two planes to get the center of my part. I make the mounting holes on the lower right corner use the mirror to make the top right then mirror both to the other side to get all four. Is this the best way? I don't know but it does seem to work.

The next think is the bolt patterns in the middle. I have 2 sets of 4 one is 3/8 tapped hole and the other is a 3/8 thru hole. I would like to just put the hole on the plane but it doesn't want to use the plane so I dim off one plane and off the side. Is there a way to do it from both planes? Ok second part the thru holes are 45 off from the tapped holes. I don't know a good way to sketch them without doing the math on my own. There has to be a fast way to do this.

I have also been using the mirror when I put parts into the assy. I check the apply mates but they don't seem to mirror and I have to add them to the mirrored parts. Whats the trick?

Thanks for the help and suggestions.

[basch3]

There's no right way to make sketches. You might want to start using centerlines to help make your sketch. You can use centerlines to set up relations (midpoint with origin, horizontal, vertical, etc..) to align the holes.

Also, I would have put the center of square part on the origin. You can dim everything from the origin. It is then easy to make axis with the right/top/front planes. Then, after one hole is in, use the circular or linear pattern to pattern features. It's easy to use and very easy to make changes.

Just my 2 cents.

[DareBee]

I may be confused a bit here but from what it sounds like you are trying to do;I know I wouldn't have made any planes or axis. I would have used some sketch patterns and I would (ALWAYS) use the hole wizard.

Your square doesn't necessarily need to be centered on the origin because you can always add a corner to corner diagonal in your hole sketch (or even a 3 point circle).

[CharlesM479]

Here is a sample of what I am doing. The bolt hole circle in the middle has tapped and thru holes.

[JIMMY]

There are many different ways to do any sketch.

[KKutt]

I have recently been working with solidworks and have made a lot of mistakes making things more complicated than they needed to be. On the part you are drawing first you model the block. Then click on hole wizard select type of hole that you want. go to positions and just click anywhere on the surface that you want the hole to be placed. now sketch a circle on the BC. then from origin (center hole) sketch a line horizontal and fix it. now sketch a line from origin(center hole) coincident to the circle at an angle near where you want the hole . select smart dimension and then select the two lines and enter the desired angle in degrees. now drag the hole to the intersection of the line and circle and it will place itself at the intersection. end the hole wizard(green checkmark). now select the hole in the tree (highlight) and click on circular parrtern. enter the info and whola. hole pattern right on axis. repeat for the rest of the patterns. Hope this helps.

[CharlesM479]

I see what your getting at. I will give that a try next time. I have been doing good and finding a way to make a part. I just want to find different ways to make parts and the best way to learn them is to ask how everyone else would do it.

Thanks

[KKutt]

Yes
I have found alot of answers here too.

You are going to love Solidworks after you get the hang of how it works, I think we are sometimes used to doing things the hard way and in Solidworks there is no hard way after you learn it.
You will be modeling complex parts in way less time than you ever did before.
The relations can get sticky when you are learning and you will soon learn to draw it right the first time because changing a plane or deleting a feature can cause a chain reaction where the whole tree turns red. That can usually be fixed though. I started learning this program about six months ago and have nearly solid modeled an entire gas turbine engine using old Autocad 2D drawing to create most of the parts. It has been a pleasure to work with.

if you get stuck I will help you with whatever I can

KKutt