Hi all,

I really hope I can explain this one for you to understand - here I go! Basically, I am designing some jewellery which I am going to laser cut onto 3mm MDF and acrylic. The separate components need drill holes to allow them to be linked together with jump rings. However, what I want to do is to make sure that the drill holes are at least 3mm away from the component edges, because I don't want to end up with laser cut components with drill holes too close to the edge and risk breaking. It's quite hard to know based on a 2D drawing whether the holes are appropriately spaced from the edges. I thought that there may be a way to do this using 'Align and Distribute', but haven't been able to find a function so far. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know! I've attached a picture for reference, so hopefully it makes sense...

There is an indirect way to do it. 

In Edit>Preferences>Behaviour>Steps - change the inset / outset step to 3mm.

Edit>Copy your shape. Edit>Paste in Place. 

Click on the shape ( they are both identical and in the same location ) 

Path>Inset. This will create another copy of the shape but inset by 3mm.

You can also combine this with snap to centre / snap to path if you want. 

Hi, thanks for getting back to me :) I have tried this method but it seems to alter the size of the new drill hole 🤔 I will keep trying and look out for any other suggestions in the mean time!

Hi. My idea is a little different.

You create a circle the size of your drill hole. You then create a second circle 3 mm in diameter. Convert both to paths.

Enable some snapping options and move the 3 mm converted path along the edge of your shape. It will snap to that edge wherever you wish.

Then enable Snap centers of objects.

Move your duplicated drill hole path to the center of that previously placed 3 mm path.

Delete the duplicated 3 mm path. And you now have the duplicated drill hole path - by itself - spaced exactly the 3 mm distance you wanted from the edge of the shape.

See attached graphic.

** I just realized this.

Your "surrounding" circle will probably need to have a diameter of 3 mm plus the diameter of the drill hole circle.

Example : if your drill hole circle is 1 mm, then 3 mm and 1 mm makes 4 mm for the surrounding circle.

And ... if you add a small stroke to your shape - say 1 mm in size - then the surrounding shape (the "spacer" shape) should be one-half of that stroke plus the drill hole diameter plus the 3 mm diameter. So, 0.50 mm and 1 mm and 3 mm = 4.50 mm. (This is because when your "snap" that 4.50 mm surrounding path to the edge of your shaoe ... it will "snap" in the center of the shape which has a stroke.

Hopefully, this will get you close to what you are after.