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Pattern fill an area

13 REPLIES 13
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Message 1 of 14
chrisreynolds
2959 Views, 13 Replies

Pattern fill an area

Hi,

 

I have a question which may be easy for some to solve, unfortunatly not me.

 

We have a border/region profile which is a closed loop, shown in the soild black line on the attached screen grab.

 

We need to fill inside this area with as many circles as possible, the diameter of the circles will vary from 6mm to 200mm approx.

we need to be able to:-

1. see how many circles fit in the profile with-out over lapping each other or the profile

2. The pattern would preferably run in a series of horizontal lines or a honeycomb type pattern, starting on the centre of the profile & symetrical about the centre line

 

layout questions.jpg

 

Any help would be much appreciated,

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Chris

13 REPLIES 13
Message 2 of 14
mcgyvr
in reply to: chrisreynolds

cable fill problem? or vent holes?

 

There is no easy button really..

Is there a forumla of # of different hole sizes to # of holes at that size,etc...? or is it random.. or a pattern? 

min distance between holes? ,etc..

Obviously you can fit the most of all smallest holes when they are all tangent to each other..

 

but again.. no easy button. 

 



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Inventor 2023 - Dell Precision 5570

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Message 3 of 14
chrisreynolds
in reply to: mcgyvr

Hi,

 

Unfortunatly there is now set number of holes or circle dia, the only thing that remains a constant is the profile they need to fit in.

 

The pattern/layout I am trying to achieve will be used as co-ordinate to place parts in an assembly.

 

Thanks, Chris

 

Message 4 of 14
mcgyvr
in reply to: chrisreynolds


@Anonymous wrote:

Hi,

 

Unfortunatly there is now set number of holes or circle dia, the only thing that remains a constant is the profile they need to fit in.

 

The pattern/layout I am trying to achieve will be used as co-ordinate to place parts in an assembly.

 

Thanks, Chris

 


umm.. so how do you expect anything to figure out what could be a 100% random splattering of holes?

There MUST be some pattern right?



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Inventor 2023 - Dell Precision 5570

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Maybe buy me a beer through Venmo @mcgyvr1269
Message 5 of 14
wimann
in reply to: chrisreynolds

As previously stated, there is no button to make this happen. What I would suggest is that you start your pattern from the center as you stated and make your rectangular pattern a function of the outer limits of your profile and the diameter of your circle. So something like: n = limits/diameter (where n is the number of occurances in the pattern). You could even go further and give the limit in each direction (up down left right). In my own experience, I've used iLogic to help control this kind of behavior. When you use an equation for 'n', inventor will automatically calculate then round to the nearest whole number. This is obviously an issue if your equation comes out to anything greater than or equal to #.5. You can use iLogic to force the number to be rounded down.

 

If you are, however, new to the software, you probably don't know your way around iLogic.

 

I can help you with it if I have your part file and if you're in a compatable version of Inventor. I'm in 2014 so if it's any earlier than that, all I can do is give you screen shots after modifying your part.

-Will Mann

Inventor Professional 2020
Vault Professional 2020
AutoCAD Mechanical 2020
Message 6 of 14
chrisreynolds
in reply to: wimann

Thanks Will,

 

We've been using Inventor for abot 7-8 years now, just never looked into the iLogic side of it.

 

If you could help us it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Chris

Message 7 of 14
mcgyvr
in reply to: wimann

well so far no forumla in the world will help with no limit on diameter or # of holes. Its almost 100% random.. 

Now if he knew he needed X of one diameter and Y of another then Z of another diameter could be peppered in then its doable..

And I suspect there really is a pattern and a specific number of certain holes as it was stated its for some assembly/component placement. 



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Inventor 2023 - Dell Precision 5570

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Message 8 of 14
chrisreynolds
in reply to: mcgyvr

Sorry might of not explained properly earlier.

 

The boundary is the max area we can use for this tool, what we are trying to do is:-

 

See how many of the SAME size circle we can fit in the boundary, the circle will ALWAYS be the same size for each individual part. We may have one part where you can fit 3 of the same size circles in, another may be 150 of the same size circles, the only information we have when we start to draw is the boundary & the size of the circle.

Some of these take us 20 - 30 mins to work out on our old 2D system trying various layouts.

 

Please see below

 

3 set.jpglots.jpg

 

Thanks, Chris

Message 9 of 14
wimann
in reply to: chrisreynolds

I'd love to help but I'd need your part file. I mean, I suppose I could re-create it myself but the genuine product would be nice. What version of inventor are you using?

-Will Mann

Inventor Professional 2020
Vault Professional 2020
AutoCAD Mechanical 2020
Message 10 of 14
chrisreynolds
in reply to: wimann

Thanks Will,

 

I could email it to you? just the outline as an .ipt or dxf ok???

 

We are using 2014 suite, 2015 is in the cupboard waiting until the 1st updates are issued, lol

 

Chris

Message 11 of 14
wimann
in reply to: chrisreynolds

Works for me if you'd rather email it. I'm in 2014 as well so the .ipt file should be fine. Do you feel there is information too sensitive to post the file onto the forum?

-Will Mann

Inventor Professional 2020
Vault Professional 2020
AutoCAD Mechanical 2020
Message 12 of 14
chrisreynolds
in reply to: wimann

Our company does not allow us to put models/dxf's on the internet, so quite strict on that.

 

I'll check with my boss if it's ok to email you the shape, he's not in at the moment, so I can't send it straight away.

 

As a guide the dark shape outline is roughly 255 wide x 253 high, If you could possibly see about fitting them into a similar shape & maybe I could copy the work flow??????

 

But please bear in mind I've never used iLogic before, good on the rest of Inventor but this is a different ball game altogether

 

Thanks, Chris

Message 13 of 14
wimann
in reply to: chrisreynolds

I understand about the sensitive information. I can attempt to recreate the shape. How about this, repost the image and show me which dimensions fully define the shape without showing me what the dimensional values are.

 

If I can recreate a shape based on the same 2 or 3 dimensions, you should have no problem adapting my solution to your specific needs.

-Will Mann

Inventor Professional 2020
Vault Professional 2020
AutoCAD Mechanical 2020
Message 14 of 14

No solution as yet but forum members are looking into it for me.

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