Weird behavior - Pattern to path

[Walt_Jaquith]

Trying to do a simple circular pattern that's not rotated.  Turns out the circular pattern tool won't do that (um...what??), and you have to do it with the pattern to path command.  Ok... but this slot feature isn't centered on the point that intersects the path, and the children aren't coming in where they should.  The path intersects the center of the bottom arc, and the kids appear to be trying to center the slot on the pattern.  I've tried various options, and none of them give a correct result.  And... although the preview shows three slots as it should, if I select ok to create the feature, one of them disappears.

Help?

[TheCADWhisperer]

My attempt is unfortunately not associative.

But I will give some more effort.

I guess I could create a Parameter calculating the Arc Length from the Radius and Angle, but would like to avoid that.  (Well, I decided to calculate the arc length.  Change angle or diameter and it updates.  I could have cleaned up and use names for the diameter and angle.)

See Attached files.

[jeff_strater]

you didn't share your design, so I made one of my own, but there's no guarantees that it is the same as yours.  But, for me, this worked as expected.  Pattern on Path works best when the start point is coincident with the faces being patterned.

[TheCADWhisperer]

@jeff_strater 

You didn't Attach your file here, but it looks to me like the center point of the children got lost on the path.

Lost Children

[Walt_Jaquith]

Here's the share link: https://a360.co/3lvrnD3

Jeff, yours worked the same way mine did. which is wrong.  Look at your original; the path coincides with the center of the lower arc.  In the children it does not.

[jeff_strater · Accepted solution]

that is all controllable with the "start point" input.  By default, my design puts the start point near the middle of the slot:

and, you can tell that this is the point that is placed on the path as it goes around.  If you move the start point, however, you can make that point whatever you want.  Here I have moved it down a bit, and note that the instances update:

my model is attached

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@jeff_strater wrote:

Here I have moved it down a bit,

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... a bit?

[jeff_strater]

what are you getting at, @TheCADWhisperer ?  I meant "down" on my screen the way I had it oriented.  In no way was I moving it precisely, just trying to illustrate how this parameter can affect the pattern instances.

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@jeff_strater wrote:

what are you getting at, @TheCADWhisperer ?  I meant "down" on my screen the way I had it oriented.  In no way was I moving it precisely, 

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I understood the orientation of the screen in your image and down relative to the screen capture.

What I was getting at is the lack of precision of "a bit". 

My image was screen capture of your part zoomed in.

How do we get that to snap to that quadrant? (I added a construction line and it doesn't snap to that either.)

[Walt_Jaquith]

Ah, ok, I get it; thanks.  That clears up the offset, and when I adjust the start point, my third slot also comes in as it should.  We really do need a 'evenly spaced along path' option for the distance, though.  (d42*2)*PI/3 worked, but... yikes; that's painful.

Even better would be a 'do not rotate' option for the circular pattern.

[Walt_Jaquith]

In my part I had a construction line terminating at the path start point, and the distance marker did snap to the end of it.  It looks like you'd have to have something there for it to settle on.

[TheCADWhisperer]

I've got to run to class - I will experiment a bit more tomorrow.