Trouble with making a grid of posts

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GordonFreeman
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2017 2:42 pm

Trouble with making a grid of posts

Post by GordonFreeman »

I'm having trouble creating a 5x5 grid of posts on a plate. The goal is to have 25 cylinders rising up from a plate, with each cylinder having a hole though it's center along the Z axis. I've tried the linear pattern tool in the Part Design workbench, but since these 'posts' consist of a pad and a pocket, the pattern tool seems to only copy one or the other (only the pad, or only the pocket), but not both. And even then, I'm only able to make a single row, not a grid. When I try to create another pattern to start another row, all of my previous pockets are filled in. I'm fairly new to FreeCAD, so I'm not sure if I'm even going about this the right way. What would be the best way to make a 5x5 grid of these cylinders? Thanks.

OS: Debian GNU/Linux 9.0 (stretch)
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.16.
Build type: None
Python version: 2.7.13
Qt version: 4.8.7
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 6.8.0.oce-0.17
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grid.fcstd
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Willem
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Location: Lisse, The Netherlands

Re: Trouble with making a grid of posts

Post by Willem »

Hi Gordon, welcome to the Freecad forum
You have to do the Multitransform tool and in this feature you can first make a horizontal linear pattern and next a vertical linear pattern
Schermafdruk van 2017-04-25 22-54-23.png
Schermafdruk van 2017-04-25 22-54-23.png (230.14 KiB) Viewed 1365 times
an explanation of this function is given on this Wiki page https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/PartDes ... iTransform

Wish you a lot of success with trying this and ask for more help if this hint is not enough
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grid-Willem.fcstd
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chrisb
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Re: Trouble with making a grid of posts

Post by chrisb »

If you want to use the Part Design Pattern Tools you have to apply them for each operation, i.e. in your case: Pad - Pattern, Pocket - Pattern. If things get more complicated it might be better to use the Draft Pattern:
You model independent from the rest one of your posts; apply Draft->Pattern (with Fusion). Finally you make a Part->Union of all the pieces.
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jmaustpc
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Location: Australia

Re: Trouble with making a grid of posts

Post by jmaustpc »

chrisb wrote:If you want to use the Part Design Pattern Tools you have to apply them for each operation, i.e. in your case: Pad - Pattern, Pocket - Pattern. If things get more complicated it might be better to use the Draft Pattern:
You model independent from the rest one of your posts; apply Draft->Pattern (with Fusion). Finally you make a Part->Union of all the pieces.
I agree with the above (both), just a little clarification, in Draft WB the similar tool is called "array". It allows for ortho (linear, grid) or polar. It allows either an array of non- intersecting individual items or a fused single output of intersecting solids, see the fuse property and array type property.
chrisb
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Re: Trouble with making a grid of posts

Post by chrisb »

I have made some experiments with the Draft Array: If the array elements overlap the only sensible way seems to be to fuse the array. Otherwise subsequent boolean operations are not working.
If they don't overlap there seems to be no difference. I remember that it is bad style or leads to problems if non overlapping objects are fused, but it worked for me. Could someone please shed more light on this?
A Sketcher Lecture with in-depth information is available in English, auf Deutsch, en français, en español.
GordonFreeman
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2017 2:42 pm

Re: Trouble with making a grid of posts

Post by GordonFreeman »

Thanks, Willem, that's exactly what I was looking for. It took me a few minutes with your file to figure it all out, but now I've got it. Thanks again.
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