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ptc-1423131-Visitor
1-Visitor
September 25, 2012
Question

Points on a surface

  • September 25, 2012
  • 5 replies
  • 3074 views

I am trying to create spaced points on a complex surface quilt (rear car window). They need to be spaced 1.25" horizontally and 2" vertically covering the entire quilt. First I created a point on the surface dinmension to a vertical center datum plane and a horizontal plane at the bottom of the quilt. I patterned that point with 6 instances vertically and 9 instances horizontally to get a 10" X 10" square of points. I then wanted to create a fill pattern of my first pattern to spread the points over the entire quilt. This is not working partly because the fill pattern will only space the points with a single value for vertical and horazontal. I've attached the part for reference. Does anyone know of a way I can accomplish my goal?

P.S. I am using Creo 1.0


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5 replies

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ptc-1423131-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
September 26, 2012

I tried something differnt that is close to what I need. I used a fill pattern and surface intersection axis to get the points on the surface. The only problem is the I can only enter one value for spacing using the fill pattern tool. Is there a solution to my problem?

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ptc-1423131-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
September 26, 2012

Here is the updated model for reference.

J
John.Pryal1-Visitor
1-Visitor
September 27, 2012

Hi Curtis,

i had a look at your problem, this is what i came up with, see the attached model, hope it helps. It is weird though, that they would give all those different options for fill patterns, but there isn't one for rectangular fill, that would allow one value in one direction & another value in the other.

Regards

John

G
GrahameWard1-Visitor
1-Visitor
September 27, 2012

Yes, I noticed the same thing. Fill Pattern is the obvious choice here, but you can't have different X and Y dimensions. It's a pity, because you can do all kinds of useful things with it otherwise. Under Pattern Options you can map the points to the surface, you don't need to pattern the axes and create an intersection point.

Funny. If you can create a spiral pattern you'd think they'd write an option for an X and Y rectangular pattern.

J
J.Wagner12-Amethyst
12-Amethyst
September 28, 2012

Hi Curtis,

how do you need the points to be measured?

Shall the distance bve measured along the surface or do you need the distance perpendicular to the middle plane?

In both cases I recommend to first create a projected line on the surface and then pattern points along the projected line.

Afterwards pattern the line including the points.

First pattern only half of the surface and then mirror the whole pattern stuff.

Best regards

Jens

T
TomD.inPDX17-Peridot
17-Peridot
September 30, 2012

Indeed, if the points are spaced on a planer grid, it is obviously easier than if you map them on the surface at a specific spacing. The ladder has much more intrigue than the 1st.

In the 1st case, I might have lines in the projected sketch and projected that sketch onto the surface. You can then add datum points at the intersections of those lines. Okay, a bit out of the box but it works.

For the equidistant solution on the surface (case 2) I would do something very similar but now you have to map the line grid a bit differently. You need a "base line" and go from there. In this case, you will be able to map points along the curve at actual distanced from a reference point.

We get too caught up in depending on patterning to overlook the subtlety of individually controlled features. I fully appreciate the power of patterns but it simply isn't the answer in all cases.

What I am proposing in these solutions is focusing on defining the appropriate grid first, and then adding the points at the grid intersections, however you wish to do that.

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ptc-1423131-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
October 1, 2012

Well, the attached accomplishes what I want. Now I have the problem that Creo crashes when I replace the iges file (Feat 5) to obtain points for a different shape. I have suppressed the patterns and resumed a few at a time. This works but adds a lot of time. Maybe my solution is too cumbersome. If anyone has any ideas on how to make this simpler, I would appreiciate it.

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rtamaira1-Visitor
1-Visitor
April 17, 2015

Does anyone know if there have been any updates to include a rectangular fill pattern capability into Creo 3.0? I have tried to use the pattern fill tool and have not seen anything. I need to fill an area defined by a circle, but I need the fill pattern to have different dimensions for each direction.

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