Creating a series of holes on a path

Please Easel folks, I’d love to see a capability where you could draw a path, straight or curved, but where the path is a series of equally spaced holes, or even a series of complex polygons (I just need holes drilled). The diameter of the holes would be the width of the path or the tool. Then I’d just need to be able to set the spacing between the centers of the holes.

If there’s a way to do this already, please let me know.

Thanks!

Sean Mooney made an Easel app that does this:

55 PM

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Is there a way to use the Holes on a Path app with the new (to me) hole drilling feature?

I think the app would have to be updated to put drill shapes on the path instead of circles. @SeanMooney, would you want to make that update to your app?

@JeffTalbot I can take a look. I haven’t seen anything in the developer docs about the drill feature though, so I’m not sure what I would change.

Hi Sean,

We’ll update the developer docs, but in the meantime you would need to create a drill volume and specify the center point like this:

{
  type: "drill", 
  center: {x: 2, y: 2},
  flipping: {}
}

Great!
I think it would also be pretty trivial to create a new app that converts the selected shapes to drill points. I feel like I have seen that request on here some where

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@JeffTalbot, I’m having an issue when I try adding the drill type of shape.
I don’t get an error, but the executor function just executes over and over and over and never finishes, I have to close the App Library window to get it to stop. Any ideas?

Is the api ready for the drill type?
in the executor function if I just return the volumes that are currently in the work area (like so)

return success(args.volumes);

if the work area contains a “drill” type it freaks out, and calls the executor function over and over
if the work area does not contain a “drill” type it renders the volumes.

Hi Sean,

We will look into this.

I think I figured it out, needed to have a couple of extra properties defined

{
shape: {
	type: 'drill',
	center: {
		x: path.origin[0],
		y: path.origin[1]
	},
	flipping: {},
	width: bitSize,
	height: bitSize,
	rotation: 0
},
cut: {
	type: 'drill',
	depth: depth,
	outlineStyle: 'on-path',
	tabPreference: false
}

}

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@GordRock, the Holes on a Path app has been updated to also create the new drill type. You should see a new option for “Use Drill Points”

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Awesome! Thank you! I look forward to trying it out. I believe a lot of people are going to like this. You guys really ROCK!!

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There is also a new app that will convert any circles that you already have to the new Drill operation

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@SeanMooney This is just way too cool, Sean. Will have to get out to the shop to try these out soon! Thanks a lot.
……Gord

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The app isn’t working…what am I doing wrong?
Getting an error message “Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property ‘0’ of undefined”

I’m putting all the data in (trying to make a cribbage board) but I can’t move forward with the design because of this. Please help.

Figured it out. You can’t use the app on a line (with the draw tool), you have to use it on a shape (like a square).