3d Modeling Question
 

Ok... i know there are a few engineer/designer types out there with 3d modeling experience.
How do I drill radial holes in a round/spherical part? Like if I wanted to model a wiffleball? I don't remember ever doing something like this in school, and I can't find any relevant tutorials or forum posts.

FWIW I'm using Inventor, but I'm guessing it's probably a similar operation in Solidworks or whatever else is out there these days.

https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/im...5HTdjVhWSEnGqA

Bump

Does this help?

Create a Tapped Hole - WikiHelp

My "generic" approach for a line of radial holes around the equator of a sphere:
- Revolve a couple of concentric arcs about an axis. This creates the shell of the sphere.
- "Extrude cut" a hole from the center of the axis "through all" the entire sphere.
- Rotary pattern the extrusion about the axis.

A true wiffleball will require a CAD tool with surface topology pattern capability. I don't believe that's Inventor...

Might be able to do something with the sheet metal or warp functions. It depends on the hole. Otherwise I would setup a plane and a couple axis, extrude cut a hole through the spherical shell, then rotary pattern it about several axes.

The pitch will be different, at different "latitudes" - so you'll need to create a few circular patterns.

make a hemisphere and mirror

+1. This is how I would do it in ProE.

In Inventor, place a work plane on the cylinder or sphere, sketch a circle on the plane and extrude a hole.

Thanks for the tips, I'll give them a shot.