I am attempting to align the screw to the hole. I have tried “guides” and “change axes” methods. While the “guide” as shown (screen shots below) seems to be aligned properly, I am not positive, and it took an inordinate amount of time.
I need to develop a workflow that I can use to quickly and accurately align objects. Any ideas or suggestions would be most appreciated?
I have attached the file for more details.
Align.skp (201.4 KB)
If you leave the screw component’s axes as set it should be easy to place the screw at the proper angle on the face. You may still need to move it to align with the hole the way you want it but that shouldn’t be hard once you have it in place. You’d only need to set the Rotate tool to align with the surface containing the pocket hole.
Out of curiosity, who are you making your models for? What will be the end use?
Add a circle to the end of your screw component. Then you can push pull it through the board and intersect geometry. Then you can delete it.
Out of curiosity, who are you making your models for? What will be the end use?
Myself/Woodworking home projects. Thanks …
May I suggest that you don’t need to add the screws? Probably don’t need to add the pocket holes either. If you want to mark out where they go that’s fine but by the time you get to the shop, you probably already know where those pocket screws need to go and omitting them would get you out in the shop sooner.
If you really do feel like investing the time putting in the screws is worthwhile, set the screw component’s axes so the origin is in a logical place that you can identify in the model. Here I’ve set it so the origin is at the midpoint of the edge on the end of the pocket hole. No need for the circle.
So that gives an insertion point that has a definite place to go. You’ll have to rotate some of them but you’ll rotate around the insertion point.
Thanks Aaron, adding the circle provides easier alignment. Only issue is getting the circle positioned correctly. Need a little more practice. 
You are absolutely correct. But, when teaching a younger family member, a picture is worth a thousand words. Especially when their attention span is very short. 
For woodworking projects I think it would be smart to set the Units to Fractional, set precision high, and turn off Length snapping.
Understood. Did you see the GIF I added to my earlier post?
Thanks Dave, that makes the process much more manageable. Great addition to my workflow. 
It’s a very useful thing in a lot of respects. When I make hardware such as drawer pulls or hinges or even screws (I have to show screws in many of the furniture plans I make), I set the component’s axes and insertion point so I don’t need to to fuss to insert the component. It also makes it dead easy to exchange things like drawer and door pulls because I can use Replace Selected and one pull will go in exactly where the other one was…
Having a little difficulty with “change axes”, but this seems to make the initial alignment more straight forward. The other problem I had was adjusting the angle (off normal) of the screw to match the hole (another project). These pocket hole components (3D Warehouse) seem to have been setup properly.
Yes those screw components are set up at the correct angle. Once you have the screw where you want it relative to the hole you can use Change Axes. In my example I used the screw where you had it.
Do you want the screw out of the hole as it would be in an exploded view?
Yes, out of the hole. I then wanted to add a guide with an “x” where the point of the screw would intersect the mating surface.
When I use “change axes” on the screw and click on the mid point of the hole end, the axes keep switching.
I’d use an edge drawn with the Line tool instead of the guide line. Guides are not intended for more than temporary use. Guides can be deleted easily
Click once on the middle of the edge, move the cursor a bit in the red direction and click. Then in the green direction and click.
Worked like a charm! I replaced one set of guides with lines, I see your point about the guides being temporary entities. Also, with the axes changed, it was easy to seat the screw head, which confirms insertion depth and sets the screw length.
Excellent. If you want to you could make the line dashed and make it show only when you want it using tags/layers.
Dave, your use of animated gifs, is very effective in demonstrating a procedure. Is the creation difficult?
