[Discussion] Is cloning an Equipment better than cloning a body and then using the Equipment tool?

[vocx]

The Arch_Equipment tool is used on a Body or other solids to define an object with certain properties that are useful for IFC export.

When you need the same object repeated, is there a difference in creating a clone of the entire Arch Equipment, or should you create a Draft Clone of the body first, and then use the Equipment tool on that?

Is there a difference in properties, file size, internal organization? Is there a recommended practice? Bodies that are repeated many times are, for example, chairs, beds, television sets, desktop computers, etc. What about if you use Draft Array? Should you make the Array with a Body, and then turn the Array into an Equipment, or should you create an Array of Equipments (or Array of Clones of an Equipment)?

1. Body contained in an Equipment
2. Clone of Body, contained in an Equipment
3. Clone of the first Equipment
4. Array of Body, contained in an Equipment
5. Array of Equipments (or Array of Clones of an Equipment)

FreeCad_Arch_equipment_clones.png (78.43 KiB) Viewed 468 times

OS: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.18.15007 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: master
Hash: 70fef3934190aabc61f5e1346483359d5ad21403
Python version: 2.7.15rc1
Qt version: 4.8.7
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 7.3.0
Locale: English/UnitedStates (en_US)

[yorik]

No, this is more a matter of personal choice, how you prefer to organize your model, how you want your IFC output, etc...