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Boolean "remove" operation but adding tolerance

  • Thread starter Thread starter Roundhouse
  • Start date Start date
R

Roundhouse

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Hello there!

I am an absolute begginer in CATIA. However, I'm doing a little personal project and I need to know if this can be done:

I need to poke a hole in the orange part (I'll call it plunger) by substracting the grey axis through it. The problem is that I need the orange part to be 3D printed and to actually go through the axis in real life (it is a DC motor), so if the size of the hole is exactly the same as the size of the axis, the orange thing will not go through, as it needs a little bit of tolerance.

View attachment 1877

My question: can this be done in CATIA? Can I use the "remove" boolean tool and at the same time add, say, 0'1mm of tolerance to make sure it will go through, or should I look at the problem from a whole different angle?

Thanks a lot in advance!

EDIT: The axis is not perfectly cylindrical as it as a small pin to keep the rotation of the plunger solidary to the rotation of the axis. Otherwise I would just poke a slightly bigger hole in the plunger :)
 

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There are many ways in CATIA to achieve what you want, including the boolean process you described.

Without seeing what kind of geometry you have; here are the basic steps using a boolean for a quick&dirty result for printing:

1. copy the motor shaft as a body into the plunger part
2. do the boolean Remove to create the hole
3. use the Thickness command to add the clearance (-0.1mm will make the hole larger)
 
Last edited:

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