Creating groups of holes in NX

One of the best overall additions to NX was selection intent.  There are various options, including single, connected, inferred (NX best guess, depending on what you are doing at the time), and Feature. 

Feature is interesting, because it will feed all relevant entities to the target NX modeling function.  This has some nice side effects when it comes to the hole command.

Consider the following common scenario.  A part has multiple holes of a given size, and multiple sizes.  Normally, the hole command is used from a point, or sketch to define and place a single hole.  A very common use case after that is to pattern, or instance that hole feature to various places on the model.

Feature brings the ability to group all like sized holes, of a similar orientation, into one operation without having to use patterns to do it.  Irregular patterns of holes can be done, of course, but this can be confusing and or tedious.

An alternative to this is to place points in sketches, with each sketch defining all holes of a given size, and given orientation all in one place!  The Part Navigator "rename" function, available on the right mouse menu when a history item is selected, can be used to convey the size for quick reference.

It all works like this:  (Shown in NX 7.5, but works in NX 6)

1.  Build your sketches, one per orientation and size, containing points, constraints and dimensions to locate the holes.

Many Holes, only three instances of the "Hole" Design Feature!

2.  Make sure "Feature Curves" is selected, as shown at right, and select the sketch in the "Hole" design feature command, to generate all the necessary holes at one time.

Repeat as needed for all desired sizes and orientations.