Cutting hole through tube

Terry,

Make the sketch of the hole you want on a plane, not directly on the tube. The plane can be one of the main planes that already exist or on a new plane that you construct. Then just extrude-cut through the 1.5" diameter tube. Make sure that the sketch of the hole will pass thru the tube. Usually, sketches are extruded 'normal' to the plane upon which they are created, but in 2004 one can extrude at an angle by following another sketched direction, shown on yet another plane. There are many different terminations to the extrude-cut - the simplest is probably 'through-all', pointing in the direction towards the tube.

Sincerely, Jerry Forcier

Terry G wrote:

If you drawn the tube centered on the origin/planes. Select one of the other planes draw a circle and extrude each way to the surface. That way, if you change your tube dia, the hole still penetrates to the outside. Regards Tony O'Hara

I have tried your exact explanation many times, so I must be missing a very obvious step. Here is what I am doing.

I created two circles in my first sketch, one to determine the outside diameter and one the inside diameter of my tube. Then I drew a line perpendicular to the center of my circle to determine the length of my tube. I then used the sweep function to create my tube.

The bottom of my tube is centered at the origin, and the axis of the tube is along the Y axis. Now I am starting a new sketch, selecting a plane, either the front or right plane, and drawing a circle with .325 radius centered exactly 1 inch above the bottom of my tube. The problem is that the extrude-cut option is not available. I have tired creating this circle on different planes and still no extrude-cut option.\

When you said not to make my circle directly on the tube, I'm not sure what you mean. When I start my sketch, I select a plane, and the circle I draw happens to fall right inside the middle of the tube. I'm not sure how to draw the circle away from the tube and still achieve the cut I want at that exact location. Maybe this is my problem.

Like I said, I am probably overlooking something obvious. Thanks for the help.

you could just extrude the first sketch (no real need to sweep a straight tube). you can even draw a single circle & do a thin-extrude

you're there, not sure why you can't cut. select the sketch first, then cut-extrude should become active

Maybe the sweep is what's stopping it. With your first two circles in the sketch, forget the line and instead of using a sweep, try an extruded boss. This should work.

WT

Ok, two things... and pardon me if I misunderstood something...

1) when you make your tube try the extrude rather than sweep. you can do it the way you are but it's the long way around for what you've described.

2) I followed your described steps exactly and it worked as expected. It sounds to me like you created your tube using "Insert - Surface - Sweep" instead of "Insert - Boss/Extrude Sweep". Go back and double check, I bet the ends of your tube are open and the space between the inside and outside walls is empty. You're looking for a solid and ending up with two surfaces instead. Besides that, consider point 1.

- Eddy

Here's something which might help you or confuse you more??

(23K)

From what you explain, and if the extrude-cut is greyed out, it sounds like you maybe using surfaces?

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Terry G wrote:

It looks as if the sweep function does not allow a cut extrude feature. I did create my tube using a revolve boss and extruded boss and the extrude cut worked perfect. This bothers me though. Because the straight tubes are not a problem now, but I have also designed a tube frame with many odd bends and angles using the sweep function. So how would I notch out a hole in the frame without the extrude-cut feature being available. I tested this out, and sure enough, it is not even highlighted when I open my frame.sldprt file. Same problem I had when I used the sweep function for my tube.

I wonder what reasons solidworks would have not allowing an extrude-cut function on a tube that uses the sweep feature? I thought the sweep feature was one of the more common ways to design round tube frames.

Thanks for all the help.

cut-extrude works for me using a sweep

Terry,

Without seeing your file, it's not clear what is going on from what you have stated. And you've stated so far does not make sense, those functions do and should work.

You can send the file to me if you want (less than 2 megs, zipped, please).

..

Terry G wrote:

Problem solved thanks to everyone's help.

I was using the Insert - Surface - Sweep. I deleted that feature on my tubes and frame and used the sweep boss/base feature, and the extrude cut works perfect. I don't know why I chose the surface sweep. Still learning!

I am amazed out how quickly I received responses. Thanks again to everyone. What a great group.