You thought GrabCAD print was just for assigning your print parameters, didn’t you? Well, it is so much more. Buried under that sleek, easy-on-the-eyes interface is a very powerful piece of software. GrabCAD Print doesn’t just help you assign part attributes, it can also alter part geometry.
After receiving some questions from customers about a recent Video Tech Tip I produced that involved installing heat-set inserts into a part, I wanted to dive more into adjusting hole sizes for hardware like inserts or even thru bolts. In the following video, I will show you how to change the diameter of a hole directly within the GrabCAD Print environment.
Altering Part Dimensions in GrabCAD Print….Wait…What?
Modifying a print at this stage of the process can be a very powerful and useful feature as we don’t need to isolate inserts, but we can think about changing the diameter of any hole on a part. We can even control the wall thickness around that hole to modify its strength properties. While I am always a fan of editing my SOLIDWORKS file to have full traceability, this is a great, fast way to edit a hole on the fly.
For this feature, there are really only two basic rules to follow:
- You must be working from a solid file like a generic STEP or a native CAD file like a SOLIDWORKS .SLDPRT (it will not work with an STL).
- You need to make sure that the part can accommodate the size hole you are changing to. This seems like a no-brainer, but this has more to do with the size of the face the hole is cut into rather than the size of the actual part.
If the hole gets too close to a fillet or a curved surface it will throw an error and you will need to use a smaller hole. You also have the ability to save custom sizes, so if you play around and find a standard size that you use often, you can add it to your dropdown list for quicker edits in the future.
Check out more of our 3D printing Video Tech Tips to expand your skills and learn more about other features and tools for 3D printing.
