Make a dang hole in a cube

[monsteroyd]

Hi,

I have searched and read and googled. First, let me say I am coming from Fusion360, and the FreeCad's GUI is very unintuitive to me. My problem I know, but why can't I pick a face of a solid and put a dang hole through it? I've tried making a sketch under my shape with 2 circles in it, selected that sketch, and then associated the hole thing with it, but no hole in my shape.

So I am making a very simple shape, my sketch is just a 50 mm x 50 mm square, that I then pad out to a thickness of 4 mm. Now I want 2 holes in that shape for screws. So I made another sketch (since it seems like you can't pick the original sketch) and put 2 circles on it on the XY plane. When I select that sketch and do the 'hole' thing, it does nothing.

I am missing something fundamental about the way FreeCad works, I know. But I can't seem to figure it what it is. I was an immediate level user of Fusion360, so I know a way to do things, but not the FreeCad way. My first thoughts were why do all the sketches have to start on the origin planes. Why not choose the plane when you start the sketch, then you could pick a face. Anyway, I am rambling on with my frustration which is not the point.

How do you make a hole in a solid?

Do I need to move the second sketch with the 2 circles to the face of the solid?

I am using FreeCad 0.19 on Windows 10.
OS: Windows 10 Version 2009
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.19.24276 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-19
Hash: a88db11e0a908f6e38f92bfc5187b13ebe470438
Python version: 3.8.6+
Qt version: 5.15.1
Coin version: 4.0.1
OCC version: 7.5.0
Locale: English/United States (en_US)


TIA Monty

[Shalmeneser]

Dang ??
PartDesign_Pad or PartDesign_Pocket ?
.

Why can't I pick a face of a solid.

It's what you have done : select a face + do sketch.

[GeneFC]

It's what you have done : select a face + do sketch.

It is highly recommended that you always give a different file name when responding. Reuse will lead to utter confusion for anyone else reading this topic.

Gene

[drmacro]

Coincidentally...
That's exactly what I teach in the first pdf in the series found at the link shown in my signature below.

And in the second pdf a teach a second way to do the same.

[Bance]

FC pads out of the screen and pockets or holes into the screen, just check reversed=true.

[heda]

wonder how many posts there are about the "reverse thing" in pd wb...

so, a random thought,
if a pocket is done, there could be an internal check to see if the resulting volume actually is smaller, if not automatically change the setting of reverse, possibly with an infobox raised with that message.
that would probably reduce the posts on the subject matter (=enhanced "usability")

[chrisb]

if a pocket is done, there could be an internal check to see if the resulting volume actually is smaller, if not automatically change the setting of reverse, possibly with an infobox raised with that message.
that would probably reduce the posts on the subject matter (=enhanced "usability")

I sure don't want this depend on smaller/bigger volume only, but zero volume could be a reason to set Reverse automatically.

[kisolre]

Or maybe a Preview like in Loft/Sweep would be nicer
The Tool shape is generated anyway, why not just show it to the User?

[chrisb]

Or maybe a Preview like in Loft/Sweep would be nicer

+1
"Through all" could be a problem though.

[kisolre]

"Through all" could be a problem though.

Wasn't that fixed recently when the length is now calculated by the parent feature bounding box and some other infos? So the Tool is now reasonable length instead of the fixed 10m in the past?