Creating a textured station platform surface

[PeterSD]

I could not find a way of texturing surfaces easily within FreeCAD. I thought that creating multiple pockets on the surface of a rectangular body, slightly raised above the body would be the way to go to represent the slabs on the platform surface would be the way to go.
I have used 'Construction lines to string along the individual pads and this seemed to work well. Now I have got a problem with the Pad. It now complains of multiple solids. I cannot see how this can be. Is this due to a limitation on the method I am using? I have rebuilt this twice with the same result.

Station Platform REV 1.FCStd

(156.9 KiB) Downloaded 22 times

Edit Changed 'bodies' to 'solids'.

[GeneFC]

Check the alignment of your sketch to the underlying pad. When I looked I could see small offsets. I removed some of the perimeter blocks from the sketch and then it padded successfully.

I did not see anything that looked like it would create a separate solid, but there may be some very small shapes or zero-length lines in the sketch.

This would probably be a lot easier with a simple sketch and then using the PD array tools.

Gene

[PeterSD]

Check the alignment of your sketch to the underlying pad. When I looked I could see small offsets. I removed some of the perimeter blocks from the sketch and then it padded successfully.

I did not see anything that looked like it would create a separate solid, but there may be some very small shapes or zero-length lines in the sketch.

This would probably be a lot easier with a simple sketch and then using the PD array tools.

Gene

Thanks Gene
You are very correct, this is a tedious and repetitive task to carry out. It is very easy to create an issue with inconsistent operations.
I have looked for information about PD array tools but have not found them in FreeCAD search.
Kind Regards
Peter

[drmacro]

Check the alignment of your sketch to the underlying pad. When I looked I could see small offsets. I removed some of the perimeter blocks from the sketch and then it padded successfully.

I did not see anything that looked like it would create a separate solid, but there may be some very small shapes or zero-length lines in the sketch.

This would probably be a lot easier with a simple sketch and then using the PD array tools.

Gene

Thanks Gene
You are very correct, this is a tedious and repetitive task to carry out. It is very easy to create an issue with inconsistent operations.
I have looked for information about PD array tools but have not found them in FreeCAD search.
Kind Regards
Peter

https://wiki.freecadweb.org/PartDesign_LinearPattern/en

[PeterSD]

Check the alignment of your sketch to the underlying pad. When I looked I could see small offsets. I removed some of the perimeter blocks from the sketch and then it padded successfully.

I did not see anything that looked like it would create a separate solid, but there may be some very small shapes or zero-length lines in the sketch.

This would probably be a lot easier with a simple sketch and then using the PD array tools.

Gene

Thanks Gene
You are very correct, this is a tedious and repetitive task to carry out. It is very easy to create an issue with inconsistent operations.
I have looked for information about PD array tools but have not found them in FreeCAD search.
Kind Regards
Peter

https://wiki.freecadweb.org/PartDesign_LinearPattern/en

Thanks for your reply. I am obviously using tunnel vision due tom my inexperience.
I am familiar with PD Linear Pattern and have already used it but had not thought about using it in this application
All I need to do is, create the slabs on a sketch for the for the first row and then pat it, then use linear pattern to create the slabs to repeat them along the length of the base. Then do the same again for the second row.
I shall have a go - this will take away the tedium.

[TheMarkster]

Multi-transform could be better if you intend multiple linear patterns.

[PeterSD]

Multi-transform could be better if you intend multiple linear patterns.

Thanks for this.
My problem is the that odd rows are consistent across all columns whilst the even rows are offset by half a slab then become consistent. This is the reason for me trying the original approach (which really was hard work) and the reason why I suggested that I would have to use use the Linear Pattern twice. Would I not have a similar issue Multi Transform?
Best Regards
Peter

[TheMarkster]

Something like this I had in mind.

Snip macro screenshot-7d14cf.png (87.04 KiB) Viewed 1623 times

[TheMarkster]

It could be better to make more than you need on both sides and then come back with a pocket to trim the excess.

[PeterSD]

It could be better to make more than you need on both sides and then come back with a pocket to trim the excess.

Yes, I see what you mean. I shall play around with this

UPDATE !
Just a few things I am planning to do:-
The first important thing for me to establish is the maximum size of print bed available.
These are 235mm (X), 235mm (Y) and 250mm (Z).
With the above in mind, the max. width I could use is, say 230mm.
Slab dimensions 12mm (Y) and 8mm (X) Gaps between slabs 0.25mm (Mortar)
Calculations give a max No of full slabs =19 + Mortar width between each slab.
Width of sketch is therefore (18 * 12) + (17 * 0.6) = 226.2 mm. This is comfortably within my printer bed width and will become the sketch Y axis width,
The x dimension will not be printer critical. Let's say I want 9 Slabs in the x direction.
This would make the bed size in this direction (9 * 8)+ (8 * 0.6) = 76.8 mm. This would become the padding distance for the sketch of the base plate.

What I am still thinking about is whether to create 2 sketches and pads. Each pad being used to create their own LinearPattern and these in turn being fed to the MultiTransform.
I have to do more reading of these PartDesign functions to see what will work.
I shall make a start on the base sketch(s) and their pads first.

UPDATE 2
I had forgotten to take into account my cutting blade width which is 0.5 mm. I therefore need to increase the mortar width to 0.6 mm to take this into account. I have recalculated. The resulting dimensions as above (in Red). You will see that I have had to reduce the number of Slabs on the Y axis to 18 to stay within my printer bed width.
Any comments, as always would be welcome.