Grille design with rectangular pattern extremely slow

[Anonymous]

Dear Forum members,

I am having a problem while designing a very primitive but still unusual thing: a rectangular front grille wth a rim around it where no holes are needed.

As I need 9 different dimensions I didndesign the basic shape parametrically so that I can easily change the overall dimensions, the rim around the grill

where no holes are needed and also there must be an extra hole for a safety rope, so its diameter and X / Y distance from the corner is also a parameter.

Everything works very well, i am happy with that.

Now I want to make hexagonal cutouts for the main Grille part (except the rim all around).
For this i designed one single hexagon right in the middle on an offset plane (everything is symmetric to this center point)

I then make from this an extrusion (cut) thru the basic inner part of the grill.

Then I make rectangular pattern of this extrusion (cut) symmetric in two dimensions (along the 30 deg and -30 deg axis, I also included into the sketch on the offset plane)

with spacing, what corresponds my goals regarding the wall width between the adjacent hexagonal holes.

This works well, and the end result is what i need.

EXCEPT: it takes ages (literally an hour ith a larger grille) to make the pattern.

Is there any other methode which does not take that much time to compute?

(I have a notebook with 16gigs of DDR4 and an i7 4 core gen 6 CPU, and PCIe SSD and nothing else runs in the background!)

thanks,

Tamas

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! WIthout seeing the actual part, it is very hard to comment further. It largely depends on the complexity of the geometry and the number of pattern occurrences. There are ways to make it faster. Please attach the file here so forum experts can comment further.

Many thanks!

[TheCADWhisperer]

Post screen capture here including expanded feature tree showing sketch nodes

or

better yet, 

Attach your *.ipt file here.

Someone will demonstrate an efficient technique.

[Anonymous]

Dear All,

Sorry I was not available for a while....

Here I attach the IPT file.

in the manage tab if you change the length and width then it takes quite long to finish with the re-dimensioned model....

Any idea how to do it more efficiently?

I need to have same design with different parameters....

Thanks,

Tamas

[WHolzwarth]

I've tried several ways for a solution. Patterning a derived part seems to be rather quick, but the filesize of the result (Grill complete with EOP down) is worse.

[TheCADWhisperer]

Do you really need modeled geometry

or

can you use a cosmetic appearance?  (you would have to create the image for the appearance texture)

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Yes I need the real geometry because I need to give 2d Drawings to the manufacturer, and in any other cases you will not see the hexagonal pattern in the 2D drawings...

Thanks,

Tamas

[Anonymous]

Hi Walter,

Thanks for the files!

I was not able to see anything in the "Grill Complete" file

I still have to examine the " Sample Parametric hex grill V2 - WH "

file as it does not the exact same thing with the parameters as mine.

After I find the functions I will come back to you!

Thanks,

Tamas

[Anonymous]

Dear Walter,

As soon as the dimensions get as big as in my file, the speed of generating the part is about the same. 😞

Also having pattern of patterned features makes a bit difficult to keep the dimensions and parameters straightforward...

(not impossible tough)

Anyway, Thanks for your help,

Tamas

[JDMather]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Hi Walter,

Thanks for the files!

I was not able to see anything in the "Grill Complete" file

---

Drag down the red End of Part marker.

[Anonymous]

Ah,

My Bad... Thanks 🙂

Anyway it is still very slow.

Thanks,

Tamas

[WHolzwarth]

It's real life.

Laser-cutting all those holes will need some time, too.

I didn't compare Rebuild All times between your method and my alternative, but I'm in good hope.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Guys,

Here is another solution using a slightly different patterning technique. Instead of patterning the feature, I use pattern lump/solid option. The total file size grows significantly due to the toolbody but compute should be relatively faster, since the Boolean operation is done in the fewest time.

Many thanks!

[WHolzwarth]

I've tried similar before, Johnson. I've used patterns of sub-combines and mirroring, but some waiting time was still left.

I've stopped your file after 13 minutes with no result. Grill was visible with my method after 90 seconds.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand what you did there to make array work. do you have a video ,or instructions on this operation?

[JDMather]

Select Planar Faces rather than Edges (lines) for the Directions.  (When appropriate.)

[kelly.young]

Hello @Anonymous did the attached image make sense for you?

Typically if you set the parameters for the distance of the Hex and Web thickness you can just input those as the defined distance.

Choose the face as the direction and type Hex + Web for the distance. If you ever want to change them it will update based on the parametric input. 

If you're still stuck let us know with a screenshot or screencast and see if we can show you in better detail.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if a post solves your issue or answers your question.