---
title: "Duplicate a hole in a row, a grid or a circle"
description: "Turn one hole into a row of screw holes, four holes in the corners of a plate or a bolt circle: tap it, Duplicate, pick Line, Grid, Circle or Mirror, type the copies and the spacing, Apply. Up to 100 copies that stay numbers you can change. Free, on a phone too."
canonical: https://speakcad.com/guides/duplicate-a-hole-pattern
published: 2026-10-05
updated: 2026-10-05
publisher: SpeakCAD
---

# Duplicate a hole in a row, a grid or a circle

> Turn one hole into a row of screw holes, four holes in the corners of a plate or a bolt circle: tap it, Duplicate, pick Line, Grid, Circle or Mirror, type the copies and the spacing, Apply. Up to 100 copies that stay numbers you can change. Free, on a phone too.

A mounting plate rarely has one hole. It has four in the corners, a row along an edge, or six on a circle around a shaft. In SpeakCAD you place the first hole with its exact position, then Duplicate it: the copies are two or three numbers on that hole's card (how many, how far apart), not more holes to place and keep in line.

## Steps

1. **Place the first hole.** Tap Hole, tap the face, pick the size (M3, M4 and so on) and type its centre's distance from the face's edges, then press Apply hole. Put it at one end of the row, or at a corner of the grid. A cut, an added tab or a text duplicates the same way.
2. **Tap Duplicate on its card.** With the hole selected (tap its wall, or pick it in Hand edits), tap Duplicate, next to Move and Remove. The card offers four patterns: Line, Grid, Circle and Mirror.
3. **Pick the pattern and type its numbers.** Line: Copies and Spacing, Along the left–right edge, Along the front–back edge, or Other angle. Grid: Copies and Spacing, Rows and Row spacing. Circle: Copies, the Arc angle (360°, 180° and 90° are one tap) and the Centre: Centre of the face, or Tap a point. Mirror: Across left–right or Across front–back. Copies counts the hole you started from, and the note under the fields says which way the copies go.
4. **Check the markers, then Apply.** A marker sits on the model at every copy's centre while you type, and a copy that would land past an edge of the face gets a note. Press Apply, or Cancel to leave the hole alone: the part rebuilds once with every copy, as one version, and the chat says what was made, such as Duplicated Hole 1: 4 copies 10 mm apart along the left–right edge.
5. **Change it later, or remove the copies.** Tap the hole or any of its copies: the card shows the pattern's numbers with the hole's own. Type 6 copies instead of 4, or another spacing, and the part rebuilds. Remove the copies takes it back to the single hole.

## One hole, then its copies

Place the first hole exactly ([Put a hole at an exact distance from the edge](/guides/hole-at-exact-distance-from-edge) shows how), then tap **Duplicate** on its card. The copies are not more holes to place one by one: they belong to that hole, written as numbers on its card. **Copies** counts every hole in the pattern, the one you started from included, so Copies 4 is four holes. **Spacing** runs from centre to centre. Change the hole's diameter, or give it a screw head, and every copy follows; tap any copy and the same card opens.

A pattern holds up to 100 copies (in a grid, copies × rows), so a number typed by mistake never stalls your phone. A cut, an added tab or a text duplicates the same way: a row of vent slots, two pegs mirrored on either side of a lid, the same mark repeated along a rail. Mirror is for a hole, a cut or a tab: a text mirrored would read backwards, so its card does not offer it.

## Line, Grid, Circle or Mirror

| Pattern | What you type | On a printed part |
|---|---|---|
| **Line** | Copies, Spacing, and the Direction: Along the left–right edge, Along the front–back edge, or Other angle in degrees | A row of screw holes along a rail, vent slots, a row of pegs |
| **Grid** | Copies and Spacing, Rows and Row spacing | Four holes in the corners of a plate, a perforated panel, stand-offs for a board |
| **Circle** | Copies, the Arc angle (360° for all round), and the Centre: Centre of the face, or Tap a point | A bolt circle, holes around a shaft or a fan opening, radial slots |
| **Mirror** | Which way it flips: Across left–right or Across front–back, about the face's centre line | The same tab on both sides of a box, a hole and its twin on the other half of the face |

Under the fields, the card says which way the copies go, with a **Flip** beside it to turn them round ("The copies go towards the right edge"; for a grid, "Copies go towards the front edge" and "Rows go towards the right edge"). The hole you duplicate is the first of the row, or the corner the grid grows from, and both grow towards the middle of the face, so a hole near a corner fills the plate rather than running off it.

## A row of four holes, counted

On the 80 × 50 × 3 mm Plate, an M4 hole 6 mm from the left edge and 6 mm from the front edge, then **Duplicate**, **Copies** 4, **Spacing** 10, **Apply**: measured on the editor, 2 taps and 2 typed numbers once the first hole is there, 6 taps and 4 typed numbers from the bare plate. **Line** and **Along the left–right edge** are already chosen, and the copies go towards the right edge; the chat says "Duplicated Hole 1: 4 copies 10 mm apart along the left–right edge". The [intuitive CAD page](/intuitive-cad) has the same task next to Tinkercad's and Onshape's steps.

## Four holes in the corners of a plate

An 80 × 50 mm plate with an M4 hole 6 mm in from each corner. The grid grows from the first hole towards the middle of the face, so the first hole can go in any corner; here, the back-left one: **Hole**, the top face near that corner, **M4**, then **Centre 6 mm from the left edge** and **6 mm from the back edge**, **Apply hole**. Tap **Duplicate**, pick **Grid**, and type **Copies** 2 with a **Spacing** of 38, then **Rows** 2 with a **Row spacing** of 68 (50 − 2 × 6 front to back, 80 − 2 × 6 left to right). The card reads "Copies go towards the front edge" and "Rows go towards the right edge", and the four markers sit in the four corners before you apply; if one falls off the plate, **Flip** beside that line turns its copies round. Press **Apply**: four holes, 68 by 38 mm apart centre to centre, made from one hole and four numbers. **Measure** between two of them reads it back.

## A bolt circle

Six M4 holes on a 40 mm circle in the middle of an 80 × 80 mm plate: tap the plate and type 80 for both sizes, then place the first hole 20 mm from the centre of the face with **Hole**, **M4**, **Centre** on the left–right row and **Centre 20 mm from the front edge**, **Apply hole**. Tap **Duplicate**, **Circle**, **Copies** 6, **Arc angle** 360°, **Centre of the face**, **Apply**. The six holes sit 60° apart on a 40 mm circle, starting from the one you placed: the circle's size is the first hole's distance from the centre, so a hole placed right on the centre cannot be turned around it (the card says so).

On a Cylinder's round top face, the Centre of the face is the centre of the circle, so the same steps put a bolt circle on a round flange. For a circle around another point, such as a boss off to one side, choose **Tap a point** and tap it; a tapped centre is as exact as your tap, while the Centre of the face is exact to the millimetre. An **Arc angle** under 360 spreads the copies over that arc instead, the first and the last at its two ends: 3 copies over 90° sit 45° apart.

## A row of slots

Five vent slots 6 mm apart on the front of a box: one slot with **Cut**, **Slot**, Width 3, Length 15, **Through**, placed at the left end of the row (turn it upright with its **Angle** first if it should stand). Then **Duplicate**, **Line**, **Copies** 5, **Spacing** 6, **Along the left–right edge**, **Apply**: the copies go towards the right edge. With 3 mm slots 6 mm apart, 3 mm of wall stays between two slots.

## Changing it later

The pattern's numbers sit on the card with the hole's own: type 6 copies instead of 4, a new spacing or a new arc, and the part rebuilds as a new version. **Remove the copies** takes the hole back to one; **Undo** steps back one version at a time. Move the hole and a row or a grid moves with it, its spacing kept; a mirror image moves the opposite way, and a circle keeps its centre, so the circle's size changes.

## Spacing that prints

Leave plastic between neighbours: about 2 mm between two holes, edge to edge, is the least that prints as a solid wall with a 0.4 mm nozzle, and more is better where screws pull. Keep at least one hole diameter from the edge of the part. For two parts that bolt together, type the same spacing on both: the copies are exact numbers, so a lid and its box line up.

## What it does not do

- **One pattern per edit.** A grid and a mirror of the same hole, or copies of copies, take a second hole with its own pattern.
- **One face.** The copies stay on the face you tapped, in its plane. Holes all round the side of a cylinder, or copies onto another face, are an AI request (2 credits).
- **Not copies of the part.** Two of the same bracket on the bed is your slicer's job: add the model twice there.
- **Past the edge.** A copy that would land past an edge of the face gets a note on the card, and still applies: a hole then cuts a notch through the edge, a tab hangs over it.
- **Older edits.** A hole, a cut or a tab placed before 5 October has no measured place on its face, so it has no Mirror and no Centre of the face: Tap a point gives its circle a centre.

## What it costs

Shaping a part by hand (a hole and its screw head, a cut, an added tab, raised or engraved text, an extruded face, rounded corners, and copies in a row, a grid or a circle) and downloading what you shaped are free. Each AI request spends 2 credits, a download of AI work 4 credits, and G-code 5 more. Duplicating is a hand edit like placing the hole: free, up to 100 copies per edit, as often as you like.

## About SpeakCAD

SpeakCAD is the most intuitive CAD for 3D printing: tap a face and type a size to shape a part with simple tools, or describe it to the AI, on your phone or computer, and download a print-ready STL, 3MF or G-code sliced for your printer.

SpeakCAD works inside ChatGPT and Claude as a plugin (an MCP server): ask the assistant for a part with its measurements and SpeakCAD's own CAD AI designs it, shows it in 3D in the chat and hands over a print-ready STL, 3MF or G-code sliced for your printer.

- Live demo, no account: https://speakcad.com/demo
- In ChatGPT, Claude and other MCP clients: https://speakcad.com/chatgpt-plugin, https://speakcad.com/claude-connector, https://speakcad.com/mcp-server
- Pricing: https://speakcad.com/pricing
- FAQ: https://speakcad.com/faq
- Site index for AI assistants: https://speakcad.com/llms.txt