Common practice for creating grids on curved surfaces

[BurnzyJ]

Hey community,

I have been working to make a cylindrical x-grid type thing, which I did successfully, but I am curious if there is a more efficient way to create curved grids like this, panel isogrids, etc. I flattened a cylinder and added an extruded pattern to it, which wasn't crazy difficult but pattern generation took a decent amount of time. Is there a way to do this using tools that require less computing time, or a common practice like making sections of grids and join them in an assembly? Attached is an image of the model tree and the part.

x_grid_prtx_grid_sketch

[rreifsnyder · Accepted solution]

From your model tree it looks like you are using a standard pattern. I would recommend trying a Geometry Pattern (use the dropdown under Pattern). For large numbers of pattern instances it can be incredibly fast. The slowest part of any feature creation is joining the new geometry to the existing and running the verification that it is all valid geometry. The geometry pattern does a surface copy of the desired geometry, merges it all and only at the end solidifies.This can be especially effective with patterns of a pattern.

[KenFarley]

I heartily second this recommendation. We've had patterns that take about 20 minutes to regenerate when they were defined as a standard pattern. When they were redefined with the geometry pattern, the regeneration was so fast we were actually suspicious as to whether it was okay.

The only thing that can give you troubles with this method is the pattern instances must be identical. You can't have instances that go "off the part" or result in partial copies, etc.

[BurnzyJ]

Using a geometry pattern decreased regen time exponentially, so thanks for the tip. Unfortunately I am running into an issue where I can't form the cut flat sheet back into a cylinder using the "flatten-quilt deform" command. The error I am getting is "SOLID BEND failed regeneration". The process I used was:

Make desired cut pattern into a separate surface

Use the geometry pattern tool to pattern new surface cut

Thicken the original flat surface

Use the SOLIDIFY command on the newly patterned surface to cut the desired pattern into the flattened solid cylinder

Below are images of the model and the model tree and attached is the CREO 4 .prt file. I am open to any solutions / suggestions of things to check.

Thanks.

[KenFarley]

The curve parts we make with these types of huge repetitive patterns are not done in sheet metal. We make them by doing a toroidal bend. I don't know if that would be helpful to you, but maybe it would be worth a try?

The process I use is:

(1) Define the flat pattern part with all the cutouts, thickness as you would use for sheetmetal

(2) Toroidal bend the flat plate to the desired radius, usually with the bend defined at the midradius of the final part.

I don't know if it would work for something that needs to be a closed cylinder, if that's your final desired result.

[BurnzyJ]

Thanks for the suggestion, I have it all figured it out now but I'll try the toroidal bend also to compare regen times. 

Thanks for the help!