Linear Step and Repeat & Design Tables

Does anyone know how to link the number of instances in a linear step and repeat inside the design table.

Reply to
Jeff Parker
Loading thread data ...

Hello towarts you Jeff.

Yes can it be done. For the many times I know I have too done it.

Mak for youself one of feature pattern, then to click-click upon features tree. Behold now it shows these dimension you are for use in you table also too repeats. Next, use of repeats name in you desing table only for to tell the table you number of repeating and this many it makes.

Ops - now am I think you need skech repeats for which I am not know, but for features it made for to work. What I possible mean is worng advise I give you.

Sincerefully,

Habib

Reply to
Habib

I can't compete with Mr. Habib for entertainment. Well said, Habib! Whatever it is that you said.

Anyway, I'll agree with him on using feature patterns rather than sketch step and repeat. Sketch patterns are slow by comparison. I don't think there's a way to link to the number in a sketch pattern. I think it's one of those features SW added so that Autocad couldn't say that SW doesn't have a 2D patterning tool. It doesn't work like anything else in SW, and I don't think it has been improved since it was added. I've never used it for a real design, I always use feature patterning.

matt

snipped-for-privacy@mesabi.com (Jeff Parker) wrote in news:3721db5f.0410010730.6f4d4b12 @posting.google.com:

Reply to
matt

Matt,

I understand the performance hit that the 2D patterns cause over feature patterns but I use them because I like to use the sketch to position and control the size of my pattern. Example would be a rectangular bolt pattern centered on a plate .5" from each edge, should the plate size change the pattern follows. I would love to use feature patterns for performance but need a similar technique, any ideas?

RAD

Reply to
Robert Drake

Yeah, a sketch driven pattern might be a nice way to do that and have the number of holes change with the length of the edge, but as you've pointed out, there's no way to drive the number of holes with a sketch pattern.

So a workable alternative would be a feature pattern with equations, or mirror if that's what you're doing anyway.

A sketch pattern with a bunch of points, if that's what you're doing, is fairly harmless. The real speed problem comes when you pattern something with a lot of sketch relations, like a hexagon.

Robert Drake wrote in news:eHD7d.13380$Qv5.7182 @newssvr33.news.prodigy.com:

Reply to
matt

I think you're right. The pattern feature can dimensions can be linked into a design table, but not the step and repeat patterns in sketches.

Reply to
Dale Dunn

The main reason I asked is because of the file size difference between a feature pattern and a sketch pattern. I made the same part using both techniques and here is what I got:

Featured Part = 1.6MB Sketched Part = 286K

I still think that this functionality could be added realitvly easy.

Reply to
Jeff Parker

That's interesting. If you go to Matt's site <

formatting link
> and look at his Rules of Thumb note on patterns, you'll see that he generally found the sketched patterns to result in larger files. His test cases had a lot of instances. Did yours have just a few? Perhaps that would be the difference.

Jerry Steiger Tripod Data Systems "take the garbage out, dear"

Reply to
Jerry Steiger

Here is the issue, I am patterning extrude features not cut features. I just did the test on all 16 versions of the model I am trying to create and the featured was still smaller.

But that is not the point of this posting, I just wanted a way to drive the sketch pattern with an equation. But now I know for sure that it is not possible because of no dimension driving the number of instances like the feature pattern has.

Reply to
Jeff Parker

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.