Compact manifolds, which use minimum number of cross
drills, are often possible using angle drill holes.
MDTools® is equipped to
model, visualize, and design by using angle holes.
In MDTools, angle holes with Alpha angle of 0, 90, 180, or 270 are called Simple Angle Holes and angle holes with Alpha angle other than 0, 90, 180, or 270 are called Compound Angle Holes.
Alpha angle is the rotation of an angle hole on the surface.
Beta angle is the inclination of an angle hole from surface normal.
Alpha and Beta values are the values entered in the Edit Cavity dialog box.
Edit Cavity dialog box: Alpha and Beta angles
The figure shows two cavities, 2CV and 4CV, which are connected using angle drill AN1, inside cavity 2CV.
Cavity 2V is a 2-port cartridge valve cavity and Cavity 4CV is a 4-port cartridge valve cavity.
Port 2 of 2CV is required to connect with Port2 of the 4CV valve.
This connection is made using a compound angle drill AN1.
Alpha angle convention used in MDTools
Note
MDTools® allows only ports, cartridge valve cavities, and drill holes to be at an angle.
The Edit Cavity dialog box enables change of the Alpha and Beta angles only of ports and drill holes. These fields are disabled for all other types of cavities.
The depth of an angle hole shown in the Edit Cavity dialog box is the depth along the axis of the angle hole.