Drill holes and counterbores at sketch points

Hole drills one hole at each loose point of a sketch. A loose point is one made with the Point tool, not the end of a line or the center of a circle.

Drill holes in a face

1. Click the flat face to drill into, then choose Sketch on this face.
2. Press PP and click where each hole goes. Dimension the points from the edges or the origin if their position matters (see Fully define a sketch).
3. Choose Exit.
4. Choose Hole.

Holes go through the part, 6 mm across. The right panel shows Holes: how many were made, "one per sketch point".

Which sketch is used: the sketch you just closed or the selected one; otherwise the most recent unused sketch that has loose points. If there is none: "Make a sketch with points where the holes go first (Sketch on a face, then Point)."

Settings

Holes drill into the material, square to the sketch plane. A blind hole's depth is measured from the sketch plane; its bottom is flat.

A counterbored bolt hole

1. Make the holes as above.
2. Set Type to Counterbore.
3. Set Diameter (mm) to 6.6 (clearance for an M6 bolt), Counterbore ⌀ to 11 and Counterbore depth to 6.5.

The counterbore must be wider than the hole ("The counterbore must be wider than the hole.") and, for a blind hole, shallower than it ("The counterbore must be shallower than the hole.").

A bolt circle

For holes evenly spaced round a center, make one hole and pattern it: select the Hole feature, then choose Circular (see Pattern and mirror features). The pattern follows when you change the hole's size.

When holes go the wrong way

• "There is nothing to drill on that side of the sketch. Try reversing the direction." The sketch sits on the far side of the material. Tick Reverse direction.
• "Put sketch points where the holes go (Point tool), then make the hole." The sketch has no loose points. Line ends and circle centers do not count.
• "There is nothing to drill yet." A hole needs a solid. Make a boss first.

Holes in assemblies

Each hole has an axis. In an assembly, Centre on can put a joint on a hole's axis, listed as "Hole1, hole 2", so a pin or bolt part lines up with it. See Build an assembly.

Countersunk holes

Set Type to Countersink, then Countersink ⌀ (at the surface) and Countersink angle: 90° (ISO metric flat-head screws) or 82° (inch screws). Take the countersink diameter from the screw maker's data (a little over the screw head's diameter). The cone's face is named "countersink" in the panels.

Tapped holes

Set Type to Tapped (ISO metric) and choose the Thread, M2 to M24 coarse. The hole is drilled at the tap drill size from the table below (nominal diameter minus pitch, to the drill series, as ISO 2306 lists for a 6H thread); the Diameter (mm) box is not used. For a blind hole, Thread depth (mm) sets how deep the thread goes.

The thread itself is cosmetic: the model has the drilled hole, the view draws the thread's major diameter as dashed circles, and the drawing sheet carries the callout as a note, such as "4× M8×1.25 - 6H, thread through". STEP exports the drilled hole only.