--- title: "Put a hole at an exact distance from the edge" description: "Place a screw hole with its centre an exact number of millimetres from a part's edges: tap Hole, tap the face, pick M3 or M4, type the two distances, Apply. On a phone or a computer, free; measured at 4 taps and 2 typed numbers." canonical: https://speakcad.com/guides/hole-at-exact-distance-from-edge published: 2026-10-05 updated: 2026-10-05 publisher: SpeakCAD --- # Put a hole at an exact distance from the edge > Place a screw hole with its centre an exact number of millimetres from a part's edges: tap Hole, tap the face, pick M3 or M4, type the two distances, Apply. On a phone or a computer, free; measured at 4 taps and 2 typed numbers. A mounting plate is only useful if its holes line up with the screws on the wall, the board or the bracket it meets. In SpeakCAD the position of a hole is not where your finger happened to land: it is two numbers, the distance of its centre from two edges of the face. Here is how to type them, and how many taps it takes. ## Steps 1. **Open the part.** Start from a shape (a Plate is the classic one), from your own STL or 3MF, or from any model in your account. On the live demo the tools work on the demo part, no account. 2. **Tap Hole, then tap the face near the edges you measure from.** Tap Hole in the rail, then tap the face where the hole goes, close to the corner or the edges your drawing measures from. The card opens with the face's size, and its two Position rows already measure from the edges nearest your tap. 3. **Pick the size.** Tap a preset, M2 to M8, for a screw that slides through (M3 is 3.4 mm, M4 is 4.5 mm), or type any diameter. Through is already on for a hole, so it goes out the other side of the wall under your tap. 4. **Type the two distances.** Each Position row reads like a sentence: Centre 6 mm from the left edge, Centre 6 mm from the front edge. Type the number in each; the edge select switches a row to the opposite edge, and the Centre chip centres the hole in that direction. The marker on the model follows. 5. **Apply the hole.** Press Apply hole. The part rebuilds in your browser, and the chat line spells it out: Added Hole 1: 4.5 mm diameter, 4 mm deep, centre 6 mm from the left edge and 6 mm from the front edge of the top face of Plate, at (-34, -19, 3). 6. **Check it with Measure.** Tap Measure, then two hole centres or a hole and an edge, to read the distance with its X, Y and Z parts before you print. ## What you type, and what it means A tap picks the face and a first spot. The exact spot is two numbers. Under the size of a hole, the **Position** group has one row for each direction across the face, and each row reads like a sentence: **Centre 6 mm from the left edge**, **Centre 6 mm from the front edge**. The distance runs from the edge of the flat face you tapped to the centre of the hole, which is how a drawing dimensions a hole and how calipers measure one. The rows start from the edges nearest your tap, so tapping close to the corner you measure from saves switching them. The **edge select** in a row switches it to the opposite edge (left or right, front or back, top or bottom, named after the way each edge faces); on a slanted face the rows say "one edge" and "the opposite edge". The **Centre** chip centres the hole in one direction, and **Centre on the face** in both. ## The counts, measured On an 80 × 50 × 3 mm plate, an M4 through hole 6 mm from the left edge and 6 mm from the front edge took **4 taps and 2 typed numbers** on the editor: Hole, the top face near that corner, M4, 6, 6, Apply hole. Through was already on and the rows already read from the left and front edges. The [intuitive CAD page](/intuitive-cad) has this task and three others next to the steps Tinkercad's and Onshape's documentation gives for the same job. ## Four holes, one in each corner A plate 80 by 50 mm with an M4 hole 6 mm in from each corner: the first hole as above, then the next one tapped near the front-right corner, **6 mm from the right edge** and **6 mm from the front edge**, and the two back ones the same way from the back edge. The holes end up 68 by 38 mm apart, centre to centre (80 − 2 × 6 and 50 − 2 × 6). Tap **Measure** and two hole centres to read it. Or place only the back-left one (6 mm from the left edge and 6 mm from the back edge), then tap **Duplicate** on its card and pick **Grid**: Copies 2 with a Spacing of 38 towards the front, Rows 2 with a Row spacing of 68 towards the right make the other three, and they stay numbers on that one card. [Duplicate a hole in a row, a grid or a circle](/guides/duplicate-a-hole-pattern) has the grid, the row and the bolt circle. ## How far from the edge? Leave plastic around a hole. As a rule of thumb, keep at least one hole diameter of material between the hole and the edge of the part, more on a part that takes a load, and more again for a screw that cuts its own thread. When the hole would reach past an edge, the card says so ("Closer than its radius to the left edge: it will cut through the edge") and still lets you apply it, because a notch through the edge is sometimes the point. ## Changing it later Placing is not final at Apply. The hole stays a feature with its numbers: tap it and its card shows the same two rows above its diameter and depth. Change one and, after a short pause, the part rebuilds as a new version. [Move a hole or a cut you placed](/guides/move-a-hole-or-cut) covers that, the **Move** button and the drag handle. A hole added before 5 October was not placed this way, so its card does not give its distances from the edges. ## On your own STL The same works on a file you downloaded: open it with no change typed (the **Upload an STL or 3MF** card in a new model's empty editor, or the [Edit an STL](/edit-stl) box with the change left empty) and the hand tools work on the mesh as it is. [Add or resize a hole in an STL](/guides/add-a-hole-to-an-stl) has the sizes for heat-set inserts and self-tapping screws. ## 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. Placing, moving and resizing the hole are free; on the live demo the tools work without an account, and a download needs a free one. ## 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