Non-patterned feature duplication or feature-based point array?

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imswebra
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2021 3:29 am

Non-patterned feature duplication or feature-based point array?

Post by imswebra »

Hello,

I'm relatively new to FC and looking for ways to cleanup my designs. Consider a circular hole with a hexagonal counter-bore for example, so effectively just two pockets made on top of each other. If I need to duplicate such a feature in four corners of a box, I prefer to make the two pockets in just one corner and then use a polar pattern or two mirrors in a multi-transform. I find that to be cleaner than sketching all four circles followed by all four hexagons, even when using parameters or equal constraints, perhaps just because of the fewer sketch elements and constraints. Is there an equivalent workflow for when the duplicated features' locations do not follow a pattern, i.e. are scattered about the part? If not, what approach do you find to be the cleanest? With this example, making the circle and hexagon sketches at every desired location may seem trivial, but that becomes slower the more complex the duplicated feature becomes.

The draft workbench is still a little foreign to me, but the point array seemed to be close to what I was imagining; make the feature once and then sketch a series of points for the feature to be duplicated to. Based on the bit of playing I did with it though, I think it's more suited to duplicating bodies than features. I am using realthunder's branch, so the generic pattern is also available to me, but writing the expression seems to be more work than just sketching all the elements in place.
OS: Manjaro Linux (KDE/plasma)
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 2021.1015.24301 +3962 (Git) AppImage
Build type: Release
Branch: LinkStage3
Hash: c6cb39697eb439caf7e5bd0208ca3082a7820547
Python version: 3.9.7
Qt version: 5.12.9
Coin version: 4.0.1
OCC version: 7.5.2
Locale: English/United States (en_US)
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