combining hexagon wall as bottom with rest of case

[m.rittweger]

Hi, all!

I'm struggling with using an alternative bottom for a case. I have a case 240x240mm with wall thickness of 2mm. The bottom should have either a "massive" wall or a "hexagon" wall. So I decided to have that bottom wall as a separate component. While "massive" is absolutely no problem by just extruding a rectangle, I can't figure out how to combine the "hexagon" bottom with the rest of the case.

I have created a hexagon, shifted it slightly to x+/y+ and extruded it z+. Then I copied it (rectangular) once to x+/y+. Those 2 then are copied (rectangular again) a few times x+ and y+ to get the complete plate. Unf. the outer parts are extending the case edges of the other sketch.

What would be the best way to cut the exceeding edges off of the hexagon plate? Or did I just have used a wrong approach for this alltogether? I tried it with all parts in one sketch, but the extrusion gave me either a tremendous amount of bodies after rect.align ("new body") or simply nothing ("combine").

Ah, and: The case has some parameters, for instance "width" (x) and "depth" (y). So I don't want constant dimensions on the hexagon plate, but let them adjust to the rest of the case automagically, too. The diameter of a single hexagon is a parameter, too.

Hopefully I described my problem exactly enough and anybody can help me with that.

Michael

[g-andresen]

Hi,

please share the file for reply

File > Export > save as f3d on local drive > attach to post

Günther

[m.rittweger]

with f3d file

[mufuo]

• You can create a drawing from the borders and cut it with the CUT command.
• You can use the SPLIT BODY command with the help of the side surfaces (Spliting Tool) so that the remaining parts turn into separate parts.
• You can combine hexagons and squares in a single drawing, so you can solidify only the desired areas when using the EXTRUDE command.

[TheCADWhisperer]

@mufuo 

That doesn't sound efficient.

Can you demonstrate your technique with the actual file?

[TheCADWhisperer]

@m.rittweger 

You Hex sketch is not fully defined.

I would not use Move.

I would Pattern - Join.

I would Extrude - Intersect.

Attached in later response.

[mufuo]

@m.rittweger  you can see the edit I made in the attachment. I wrote down whatever came to my mind based on the information shared. I think it should be organized from the beginning, it was just a cursory start.

[TheCADWhisperer · Accepted solution]

@m.rittweger 

See my example (you can move the original hex if desired).

[m.rittweger]

Hi, mufuo!

---

You can combine hexagons and squares in a single drawing, so you can solidify only the desired areas when using the EXTRUDE command.

---

That's what I tried at first. But: I had difficulties getting the hexagon plate as a result from arranging the first hexagon in rect.arr. I got a vast amount of bodies in the list as one result. That was because "new body" was the only option for the extrusion of the hexagon. The option "combine" was reverted to "new body" all the time. When "combine" with the case was successfull, the rect.arr. afterwards created a mess. And in one way I tried the rect.arr. simply created no visible body at all.

That's why I decided to create the bottom plate as a separate component. This, and to be able to exchange it with another design as well.

Michael

[m.rittweger]

Hi, CADWhisperer!

Thank you very much for your reply. It was, after some experimenting in my own file with yours opened in parallel, the solution I could understand and reproduce.

There were some differences between your and my file and I try to understand:

You arranged the rectangle for the case centered around the origin while mine was with its bottom/left corner at the origin. I'm not sure if I placed the rectangle in my file now correct this way: I constructed a rectangle and set the dimensions to 300 / 200. Then I set a line from top/left to bottom/right and another from bottom/left to top/right, thus diagonals within the rectangle. Then I set coincidence for each of them to the origin and changed the contruction lines to draft lines. (2 add. comments: I was not able to move my lines within the sketch, because they were stuck on the origin and I didn't see a way to unchain them. And I used 300/200 to prevent the diagonals locked as perpendicular.)

You set the hexagon as cutout after extruding the bottom plate while I used a rather difficult way of arranging the hexagons and extrude the structure between them afterwards. Your method seems a lot easier, thanks! I just have to figure out how much I have to set for the repeats of the rect.arr. according to case dimensions and hexagon diameter. Actually I have set them, to 17 and 23, but should not go below 9 for the hex.rad. I'll figure that out...

The last 2 steps in your file seem to combine the bodies into a component or so.

Unf. I don't know what command exactly this is. Am I right that these are not used when case, plate and hexagons are all in the same sketch? At least I have only one body after the last command already.

Again, thank you for your input. It helped me really a lot.

Michael