The cylinder is a component, the rectangle is a group. The goal is to embed the cylinder into the rectangle and end up with the union, as the xray view of the rectangle shows. (see screenshot below).
The correct result was obtained by converting the cylinder into a solid. Since the rectangle is a solid, then using solid tools - subtract, produces the desired result. As we know, Solid tools require both objects to be solids.
As the ‘hole’ is a component, put it in place and explode (within the context of the block), intersect and clean up.
Then bring in your hole as needed from the component browser.
If you reverse the faces of the hole component it will all be orientated correctly.
There’s a couple of things, you have edges outside the context of the group, you can see me select and delete them.
Because the face of the pocket is right on the face of the block, when you explode it (slightly off screen) the face is removed. Draw an edge and it will come back.
What I have done here is just use a copy of the component, put it in place then cut it (you won’t find that on your context menu, it’s on the edit menu). Then opened the group for editing, pasted in place (same as cut), then Explode and the face disappears. Repair the face, intersect and clean up.
The original component is unaffected and wouldn’t need to be a solid.
Note, once you have made one hole you can move it, copy it, array it.
I see your context menu has the selection “intersect faces - with selection”. Mine only has “with model”. I cannot get rid of the individual faces, no matter what I try.
If you are only seeing ‘With Model’ you probably don’t have the parts in the same context.
Note how I copy the pocket into the group before I explode it. This makes the geometry interact so you can Intersect with Selection.
Or you are trying to Intersect from outside. You have to have faces selected, not groups or components.
It’s all about context.
If you intersect two groups ‘with model’ it will produce edges from both groups where they intersect but not contained within the context of either group.
If you are inside one group it will produced edges where they intersect within the context of the open group but none of the other geometry from the second group.
If you have the raw geometry of one group (an exploded group) inside another it will create edges where they intersect and also the rest of the geometry.
Look at my Gif and look at your image.
In my gif the group is open for editing, you can tell because of the dotted lines surrounding it, and the faces are showing blue dots meaning they are selected.
Your image show the pocket selected and the group closed, so there is nothing for it to intersect with.
Box, thanks for being so patient and helpful. Just is not working. I do see the problem as the context not being correct. Just do not understand why. In your example when you select the rectangle, there is a bounding box, I do not have the same bounding box. Maybe just missing a step. Will try again tomorrow.
You may be not understanding how to Edit a Group and I’m doing it too fast out of habit. Double click will open a group for editing.
So what you may not be seeing is after I do ‘cut’ I double click the group which opens it and shows the dotted lines of an open bounding box (rather than the solid blue of a closed bounding box) then I right click on the face to get the context menu for the paste which happens to select the face.
So you would go, Edit Menu /Cut, Double Click group, Edit Menu /Paste in Place.
The only way I could replicate the procedure was to double click on the rectangle, followed by shift-single-click on the top surface (add top surface to group). Hard to tell from your gif, but is this the keystroke sequence that worked for you?
In repeated attempts, the front surface of the rectangle would sometimes disappear and required tracing over one edge to reestablish the group. Did not affect the final result. Is this behavior expected or is there an error in my sequence?
Dave, my problem is before the start of your GIF. See my previous video. Right after I paste in place, if I only double click the group, I get an error when trying to intersect faces with selection. If, after I double click the group, then shift-click on the top surface, then the process works as expected. I hope I have explained this clearly.
Download the combined component Kreg Pocket Hole and Screws, and explode it.
Instead of trying to intersect faces, or actually remove the oval face, after inserting the hole, this component uses Cut Opening to merely make the oval transparent in the underlying wood component.
And the screws (of three common different lengths) are low poly heads, and 2D Face-Me threads, which keeps the edge and face count much lower than would a full 3D screw thread.
Easy to place, too. Open your ‘wood’ component for editing (double click on it, and if it has any, its parent component(s)) until you see the top or near face highlighting, then drag the Kreg Pocket Screw Hole component out of your Component Browser using the guide point at its origin, and place the guide point on the edge of the wood. The component also has Glue to Any Face set, so it will automatically align itself on the face you hover over before you click to fix its position.
Do the same for the screw. Use the Rotate tool to place it and the hole along the correct axis if the edge isn’t parallel to the green/Y axis or the blue/green plane.
John’s suggestion is good however keep in mind if you intend to use a cutlist extension, they tend to report only lowest level components. If you insert the pocket hole components into the board component, they will become the lowest level components and the cutlist won’t show the board.
