Hi there,
I'm hoping someone can help with a pretty simple design of an array of posts.
My question - is there a way to create an associative array of posts so I only have to edit one part to have the entire array change? that is, I want to have global values for the dimensions in the picture below:
I've used the Rectangular Pattern tool to create a repetition of my posts, but I want to shift each column of posts up slightly with respect to the one before as in the attached picture:
It seems that if you want to repeat along non-perpendicular axes like this, Inventor fails if there are too many repeats. I came across this when searching the site:
I can verify that this is my exact problem but can add that in my example, 4 repeats on the almost horizontal axis and 3 on the vertical work fine. However, 3 almost horizontal axis repeats by 4 vertical axis repeats will only work if I choose the vertical axis as Direction 2. (Is this a bug or am I trying to use the Rectangular Pattern Tool incorrectly?)
The repeat unit can be simplified to 1 circle with 2 construction lines along the repeat Direction instead of the 2x2 circles shown here but the problem persists. Also
I've attached a file with my testings inif that's any help, speaking of which any help would be appreciated
Solved! Go to Solution.
Solved by mrattray. Go to Solution.
Wow, quick response cheers.
I haven't as I'm pretty new to Inventor and it was for a photomask so I wasn't really thinking in 3D. Loving the constraints way of working though. Can you suggest a starting point to try a feature or component pattern please?
This is how I would do it.
By the way, do you mean to be working in microns?
Indeed that's what I'm looking for, thanks very much! How did you get the sketch in the browser window to be a child of the rectangular pattern?
Also if I edit your dimensions, only the circle dimension and row shift seem to have an effect, the two column spacing constraints don't seem to change the model, is there some other way to do it rather than editing the constraint values in the sketch?
edit: Sorry, yes it's meant to be in microns, working with microfluidics. There will be thousands of posts so guessing it could become a bit of a memory hog...
Ah of course, like in the 2d pattern modes.
Fantastic, exactly what I needed, thanks very much!
Just out of curiosity, have you tried patterning your pattern?
Yeah, I tried patterning in a single direction, say 6 rows, then began a new pattern with all 6 rows as the starting element for the second pattern in the second axis. I got the same errors if it was more than 4x3 generally.
I find it quite odd that it's perfectly possible to do the pattern in 3D but not in 2D sketch mode. Given the number of permutations I tried, it seems like a bug to me, but then I don't know the software very well.
For example, in the file I uploaded (I forget which sketch now), I managed to get the pattern up to 7x4, but 8x4 would fail while 7x5 would work. This seemed to be irrespective of the geometry (all pretty simple) or if construction lines were used.
Should I raise some sort of bug ticket?
Not quite sure what you mean but by scale but occasionally found I couldn't middle-click and move the view around when zoomed in.
I jumped straight in to working in microns so hadn't tried patterning with any larger feature sizes.
Are either of those what you mean?