Hole ?

[ColinPearson]

So, I'm sure anyone that knows Inventor will be able to tell, but I am new to it. Many years of CAD but about a week in Inventor.

 

I've been trying all morning to add holes to a part. My idea was to make a sketch, extrude it and then add a hole and pattern as needed. The linear option was no good to place the holes b/c my sides are not square with each other, so I when back and edited the sketch to place a pair of construction lines crossing at my intended hole center. I place a Center Point at the spot, but when I went to add a Hole feature later, (trying From Sketch and By Point), Inventor didn't pick up the Center Point. I finally googled enough to find that I could click on Sketch1 (which Extrusion1 is based on and through which Hole1 will go), click Share Sketch and now I can add a Hole feature using the From Sketch option. Questions are as follows

 

1) Why can I not use the endpoint or intersection of the construction lines to place a Hole using the On Point option?

2) Do I even want to do this? Is it better to make a Sketch1 and a subsequent Extrusion1 and THEN create a new sketch on the face of Extrusion1 and base my Hole feature on that? I guess I'm asking should my reference marks be contained in that most base sketch or is there a compelling reason to separate a sketch that will only define a feature from the sketch that defines the base object?

 

THANKS!!!

[JD Mather]

1. On Point only works with Work Point features.

2. Sketch points is the easiest and most common way of placing holes. Generally the sketch is a separate sketch. You can toggle the endpoints of lines (or rectangles) from points to sketch points in upper right corner of screen.