{"id":14590,"date":"2025-07-25T21:03:53","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T19:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.cadbooster.com\/?p=14590"},"modified":"2026-03-03T12:05:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T11:05:24","slug":"new-in-lightning-cut-extrude-holes-relative-file-paths-more-patterns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.cadbooster.com\/nl\/new-in-lightning-cut-extrude-holes-relative-file-paths-more-patterns\/","title":{"rendered":"New in Lightning: cut-extrude holes, relative file paths, patterns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lightning<\/a>\u00a0is a SOLIDWORKS add-in that makes working with fasteners fun again.<\/p>\n

Instead of scrolling through endless lists of fasteners, we let you select a type, size and material. After that, you just drag the part into your assembly and we\u2019ll add a washer and a pattern for you.
\nWe just released version 2.9, a major update. Here are the highlights:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Support for cut-extrude holes and patterns<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Support for all component patterns<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Support for relative file paths<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Faster file loading in the settings<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. Cancel file loading in the settings<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. Added options panel to Add Fastener window<\/a><\/li>\n
  7. Improved Database Management window<\/a><\/li>\n
  8. Improved preselecting a diameter<\/a><\/li>\n
  9. Other improvements<\/a><\/li>\n
  10. What\u2019s next?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    1. Support for cut-extrude holes and patterns<\/h3>\n

    We all love the Hole Wizard feature. It lets us create holes by selecting a type and adding a few sketch points. Lightning contains full support for Hole Wizard features.<\/p>\n

    But not everyone works this way, and not every old model is created this way. So, we are adding support for Cut-Extrude holes.<\/p>\n

    You could already drag a bolt onto any circular hole and the\u00a0mate reference<\/em> would do its magic. But now, we can also create a ‘pattern’ for you. It’s not a real component pattern, but we’ll find every hole in that cut extrude feature that has the same diameter and ends at the same face. Then we’ll add a bolt (and a washer<\/a>) to every hole.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    In the final release, we have combined the\u00a0Include hole wizard\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Include cut extrude <\/em>buttons into a single\u00a0Create pattern<\/em> button:<\/p>\n

    \"Lightning<\/p>\n

    2. Support for all component patterns<\/h3>\n

    We do two smart things with patterns in Lightning:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. When you select a hole before clicking\u00a0Add Fastener<\/em>, we search the feature tree and find the root feature. Then, we’ll select the first hole in that feature.<\/li>\n
    2. When you drag a bolt onto the selected hole from the Create Pattern button, we’ll create the perfect component pattern for you.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Until now, we only supported linear patterns. In this update, we added support for all pattern types that SOLIDWORKS lets us:<\/p>\n