Beginner's question about 2D Polygon - What are the pattern icons?

[Anonymous]

This is a beginner's question.

In 2D Sketch mode, I create a polygon. When I "Show constraints", I see a bunch of what appear to be the "Rectangular Pattern" icon/indicators displayed on all the elements of the polygon, however, if I try selecting any of those Pattern icons, I don't get any of the usual pattern modification menus or controls.

Can someone explain what these pattern icons represent in this context (or whether they really are pattern indicators, or something else) , and how to control them?

[Mark.Lancaster]

They are constraint glyphs..   Created automatically when you sketch that type of shape.   Someone else may have a better explaination..  I never noticed them before...

[cbenner]

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@Anonymous wrote:

This is a beginner's question.

In 2D Sketch mode, I create a polygon. When I "Show constraints", I see a bunch of what appear to be the "Rectangular Pattern" icon/indicators displayed on all the elements of the polygon, however, if I try selecting any of those Pattern icons, I don't get any of the usual pattern modification menus or controls.

Can someone explain what these pattern icons represent in this context (or whether they really are pattern indicators, or something else) , and how to control them?

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Hello!

My first question would be:  Why are you trying to manipulate them?  What is it you want to accomplish?

The constraint icon you see can represent either rectangular or polar patterns in the sketch environment.  But to edit the pattern, you need to select a line segment and right click... you should see Edit Pattern.

[Mark.Lancaster]

Chris

Is that possible when the sketch was created using the 2D polygon sketching option? If it is, that's something new I learned today.. 

[cbenner]

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@Mark.Lancaster wrote:

Chris

Is that possible when the sketch was created using the 2D polygon sketching option? If it is, that's something new I learned today.. 

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Hmmm,... I thought it showed up when I posted that, but further testing does not allow me to do it on a polygon.  Must need more coffee.  It DID work on a polygon created as a pattern, NOT using the polygon sketch tool.

But my original question is still... why does the OP want to edit the pattern anyway?

[JDMather]

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@Anonymous wrote:

This is a beginner's question.

Can someone explain what these pattern icons represent in this context (or whether they really are pattern indicators, or something else) , and how to control them?

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It is almost always better to create a simple sketch with fewer constraints and Pattern Feature rather than pattern sketch entities.

Fewer constraints and easier to edit.

The Polygon sketch is a special simplified case that is not an editable sketch pattern (in terms of number of sides) after creation.

Therefore - only use in special cases where the design intent will never include changing the number of sides.

In other cases I will use a polygon only as construction geometry, but again, with design intent that the number of sides in the polygon will never change.

Edit:  I might add, given the natural symmetry of a polygon it is likely that the centerpoint should be at the origin in most designs,

I notice that your example is not at the origin.

And even though it might track as though it is going to automatically place a horizontal or vertical constraint - this does not happen.  Hmmm, that has always frustrated me -  sounds like a good one for the IdeaStation.

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to understand how patterns/polygons work, and it seems that the polygon 2d sketch tool's underlying implementation is based on some patterned/constrained generation of line segments.

To your second comment - that's exactly my question- there does not seem to be any way to get at the usual pattern controls for these, regardless of what you select.

[Anonymous]

Yes, that's what I meant when I said that I created a polygon in 2d sketch - I used "Sketch-->Create-->Polygon".

[Anonymous]

Thanks. Perhaps a better name for the tool would be "REGULAR" Polygon, since that's what it creates, rather than a general polygon. I was just looking for a simple way to create a hexagon with top and bottom wider than the other sides. Certainly doable manually with line segs, but also thought it would stand to reason that using the polygon tool as a starting point would make sense as well, which evidently it does not.

I'm still stumped, however - what do these glyphs represent? They're not editable, but they can be deleted, so it begs the question - if I delete one of these things from a polygon, have I removed a constraint? Or something else? I can't tell. I'm assuming they are there for a reason, but that reason is nowhere to be found.

Bob

[WHolzwarth]

Hmm. I don't use marking menu.

But in right-mouse menu I can delete them.

Walter

[JDMather]

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@Anonymous wrote:

.... I was just looking for a simple way to create a hexagon with top and bottom wider than the other sides....

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I have never tried this before - but just now tried it and it worked fine for me deleting the appropriate pattern constraint glyphs.

[Anonymous]

To add to this, If you delete the center point one of those glyphs you delete all of them.

(I don't know what they are either)

[cbenner]

Create a sketch, draw a single straight line.  Add a point as a center point.  Circular pattern this line to create a rough home made polygon with however many sides you want.  These same glyphs show up.  So... they are simply pattern constraints.  They just didn't differentiate the glyph for rectangular vs. circular sketch patterns.  The only difference is that you cannot edit the pattern of a sketch polygon.  The hand made one, you can.  You can delete constraints from either one and edit from there.