Designers use may standard components in their designs each day and often they have to be mounted into an assembly. This requires the drilling of mounting holes that match the standard component. Most designers would place the standard component into the assembly and then create the required holes, for bolting or component clearance, directly from the component.
In my video I propose the use of a saved drilling template which can be used to create all the necessary holes for the standard component mounting WITHOUT the standard component. This method has a few advantages.
- Speed - Placing a template in position and then simply placing holes according to template is a lot faster than trying to place a standard component in place in order to determine hole centers
- Accuracy - A drilling template cuts down on possible hole placement errors. Not only will the drilling centers be located in the drilling template but hole sizes can be specified also.
- Easy of Placement - It is a lot easier to locate a drilling template, as a sketch, than the actual standard component in the assembly using joints
- Create the Final Part without the Standard Component - If you wish, you can place a drilling template on a part to locate all mounting holes without every having to create an assembly model.
One warning about using this method, it has two "quirks" that you must be aware of to use it effectively. They are easy to understand and workaround and I illustrate them
in the video.
