PRIME MOTIONDrilling
Drill makes holes with a drill bit, straight down at each point. Use it for holes the size of the drill; for a hole larger than any drill you have, mill it with Bore or Circular (see 2D strategies).
Make a drill operation
- Tap Drill in the rail.
- On Holes, tap hole faces, points or circles (Tap hole faces, points or circles). Each becomes a chip, Hole 1, Hole 2 and so on.
- On Tool Library › Selection, pick a drill. Only drills are listed.
- Choose the cycle and the depth, below.
- Tap Create Drill.
A sketch that is not a circle is refused: That sketch isn't a circle — drill needs a circular loop, a hole face, or a point.
Cycle
| Type | What the drill does | Its setting |
|---|---|---|
| Simple (default) | Straight down to depth, then out at rapid | — |
| Chip Break | Pecks with a small lift to snap the chip | Peck depth, Chip break (the lift) |
| Deep Peck | Pecks, lifting fully out to clear chips after each Full-clear depth | Peck depth, Full-clear depth |
| Dwell | Pauses at the bottom, then out at rapid — for a clean flat bottom | Dwell (seconds) |
| Break-through | Feeds the last stretch above the bottom more slowly, to limit splintering as the drill exits | Break-through (the length of that stretch) |
Peck depths are worked out from the drill's diameter, and change whenever the diameter does.
The unlabelled Off/On under Spot drill marks the operation as spot drilling. It records what the operation is for and changes nothing about the motion: set a shallow depth yourself.
Depth and heights
Depth to bottom (10 mm by default) is how far the drill's tip goes below each hole's top. It fills in from a picked hole face; typing a depth stops that. The drill's heights are absolute work Z values, not references: Clearance 15 mm, Retract 5 mm and Feed 1 mm above work zero.
Feed & Speed
Spindle (5000 rpm), Plunge feed (200 mm/min) and Retract feed (500 mm/min). Picking a drill sets the retract feed to the drill's plunge feed. The plunge feed cannot be set faster than the retract feed.