Merging shapes

[mikeymikey]

Hello

I found a post searching through the forum about slow speeds with linearpatterns: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6197

I am trying to create a pad with an grid/array of 30x30 rectangular pockets. It's too slow to use linearpattern. But then I thought, is it possible just to replace the pad with strips of thin pads that make up the grid (rather than sketching the individual rectangular pockets), and then merge them in to a single object? The hope is that it would be a lot faster to work with.. I hope that makes sense..

OS: Windows
Word size: 64-bit
Version: 0.14.3700 (Git)
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-14
Hash: 32f5aae0a64333ec8d5d160dbc46e690510c8fe1
Python version: 2.7.6
Qt version: 4.8.5
Coin version: 4.0.0a
SoQt version: 1.6.0a
OCC version: 6.6.0

[wmayer]

It's not the linear pattern by itself which is slow. These are the underlying boolean operations (cut or fusion) that are the bottleneck.

[wmayer]

Here is a workflow that might be suitable for your needs.

1. Create a box with the dimensions of the rectangle
2. Go to Draft and use the Array tool. Set the numbers to 30 x 30
3. Go to Mesh workbench and create a mesh from the support shape and the array shape
4. Use the boolean cut of the Mesh workbench. You need openscad therefore
5. After a while (~2 min) you get the cut mesh. If a mesh is fine for your needs you are done
6. If not go back to Part workbench and use the command mesh to shape
7. And finally run the refine shape command

The total workflow needed ~7-8 min but was still much faster than the linear pattern.