More About Patterns

The Pattern capability modifies a set of functional features of the active body by duplicating the geometry. This topic provides you with the information you need to create the pattern.

The pattern feature is a type of feature modifier. The affected features retain their full functional behavior.

The following are discussed:

Related Topics
Creating a Rectangular Pattern
Creating a Circular Pattern
Creating a User Pattern

About the Features to Pattern

When you select several features, the Features to Pattern box displays the number of selected elements. To act on this selection, just click to display a new dialog box that allows you to:


  • View the selected elements
  • Remove any element by clicking the Remove button
  • Replace any element by using the Replace button and selecting a new one in the geometry or the specification tree.



Rectangular Pattern

To create a rectangular pattern, you need to choose one or two creation directions as well as the types of parameters you wish to specify so that the application will be able to compute the location of the items you copied.

Reference Tab:

The Reference tab of the Rectangular Pattern dialog box allows you to modify the location of the instances with respect to reference features. It displays three options.

Row in direction 1 and Row in direction 2: You can change locations in both directions. In the following example, if you enter 3 to define Row in direction 1, the instances are moved along direction one in three times:

Rotation angle: Rotates the pattern by specifying a rotation angle value. For example, by entering 15 deg, the pattern is rotated counter-clockwise and looks like this:

Reference Direction:

Contextual commands creating the reference elements you need are available from the Reference element box:

  • Create Line: For more information, see Generative Shape Design User's Guide: Creating Wireframe Geometry: Creating Lines.
  • X Axis: The X axis of the current coordinate system origin (0,0,0) becomes the direction.
  • Y Axis: The Y axis of the current coordinate system origin (0,0,0) becomes the direction.
  • Z Axis: The Z axis of the current coordinate system origin (0,0,0) becomes the direction.
  • Create Plane: See Generative Shape Design User's Guide: Creating Wireframe Geometry: Creating Planes.

If you create any of these elements, the application then displays the corresponding icon next to the Reference element box. Clicking this icon enables you to edit the element.

Circular Pattern

Clicking Circular Pattern in the Pattern dialog box displays the parameters specific to circular patterns.

Contextual commands creating the reference elements you need are available from the Reference element box:


  • Create Line: For more information, see Generative Shape Design User's Guide: Creating Wireframe Geometry: Creating Lines.
  • X Axis:The X axis of the current coordinate system origin (0,0,0) becomes the direction.
  • Y Axis: The Y axis of the current coordinate system origin (0,0,0) becomes the direction.
  • Z Axis: The Z axis of the current coordinate system origin (0,0,0) becomes the direction.
  • Create Plane: See Generative Shape Design User's Guide: Creating Wireframe Geometry: Creating Planes.

To create a circular pattern, you need to choose the types of parameters you wish to specify so that the application will be able to compute the location of the items you copied.

Parameters:

The Parameters box lets you choose the types of parameters you want to specify so that the application will be able to compute the location of the items copied. These parameters are:


  • Instances & total angle: The application computes the angular spacing after you specified the number of instances you wish to obtain and a total angle value.
  • Instances & angular spacing: The application computes the total angle after you specified the number of instances you wish to obtain and an angular spacing.
  • Angular spacing & total angle: The application computes the instances you can obtain by specifying an angular spacing and a total angle.
  • Complete crown: The application computes the angular spacing between the instances you decide to obtain.

Crown Definition Tab:

The Crown Definition tab provides you with options allowing you to create an additional set of instances around the instances you have just defined in the previous creation steps.

Representation of Crown Parameters

in green Feature to pattern
in black Distance between the feature and the rotation axis
in purple Circle spacing
in red Crown thickness

Reference Tab:

The Reference tab provides options enabling you to modify the position of the initial element.

Modifications affect all instances defined.

About the Keep Specification Option

Keep specification creates instances where a limit (To Plane/Surface, To Shell, Extend across removed faces, Trim to Shell) defined for the original feature is used for each instance.

In the example below, the limit defined for the prism, i.e. the To Plane/Surface limit, applies to all instances. As the limiting surface is not planar, the instances have different lengths.