Creating Aluminum Honeycomb

[NEALROSENBLUM]

All,

I am currently working on some aerospace parts with aluminum honeycomb with all of those little hexagons. Does anybody have a good way of modeling these? They are almost like cookie cutters patterned thousands of times. I know that this will be quite memory intensive, however I do need to show some views with the honeycomb.

Sincerely,
Neal Rosenblum
Geometrix Engineering, Inc.
201 N. 13th Avenue
Hollywood, FL 33019
Ph: 954-920-2049
Fax: 954-920-9574
Cell: 954-649-9399
<u>neal@geometrixeng.c</u>

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[ptc-726111]

Neal,

I know of a convoluted technique which will reduce the number of features, and it requires surfacing. Below is a summary of the steps (refer to attached JPEG):

• Create the cut features and group in part
  
• Copy surfaces of cut (seed & bound), but do not include bounding surfaces
  
• Copy (translate) surface in direction 1, and copy (translate) original surface in direction 2
• Pattern copied surface 1, and pattern copied surface 2
• Solidify (cut) copied surfaces
• Pattern cut solidified surfaces

It may not work on a sheet metal part that requires a flat pattern. As I have been on SW lately, and created this example using Pro-E WF 3.0, there may be some differences on Pro-E WF 5.0.

Chris

In Reply to Neal Rosenblum:

All,

I am currently working on some aerospace parts with aluminum honeycomb with all of those little hexagons. Does anybody have a good way of modeling these? They are almost like cookie cutters patterned thousands of times. I know that this will be quite memory intensive, however I do need to show some views with the honeycomb.

Sincerely,
Neal Rosenblum
Geometrix Engineering, Inc.
201 N. 13th Avenue
Hollywood, FL 33019
Ph: 954-920-2049
Fax: 954-920-9574
Cell: 954-649-9399
<u>neal@geometrixeng.c</u>

[ptc-5924]

Use maybe cosmetic sketch or swept blend protrusion. What is the size of the hexagons? You can make a group pattern of swept protrusions.
Here is one method to make the honeycomb part. But, you just have to scale it up or down from a specific honeycomb size.
Evan

[BobFrindt]

Selecting "Identical" for the pattern type rather than the default
"General" will speed things up a great deal. Identical has some
restrictions, such as not being able to intersect each other etc., but it
should work in this case.

Bob Frindt
Sr. Designer
Parker Hannifin Corporation
Parker Aerospace
Gas Turbine Fuel Systems Division
9200 Tyler Boulevard
Mentor, OH 44060 USA
direct (440) 954-8159
cell: (216) 990-8711
fax: (440) 954-8111
-
www.parker.com



Christopher Thompson <->
01/07/2010 10:14 AM
Please respond to
Christopher Thompson <->


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Subject
[proecad] - RE: Creating Aluminum Honeycomb






Neal,
I know of a convoluted technique which will reduce the number of features,
and it requires surfacing. Below is a summary of the steps (refer to
attached JPEG):

Create the cut features and group in part
Copy surfaces of cut (seed & bound), but do not include bounding surfaces
Copy (translate) surface in direction 1, and copy (translate) original
surface in direction 2
Pattern copied surface 1, and pattern copied surface 2
Solidify (cut) copied surfaces
Pattern cut solidified surfaces
It may not work on a sheet metal part that requires a flat pattern. As I
have been on SW lately, and created this example using Pro-E WF 3.0, there
may be some differences on Pro-E WF 5.0.

Chris

In Reply to Neal Rosenblum:
All,
I am currently working on some aerospace parts with aluminum honeycomb
with all of those little hexagons. Does anybody have a good way of
modeling these? They are almost like cookie cutters patterned thousands
of times. I know that this will be quite memory intensive, however I do
need to show some views with the honeycomb.

Sincerely,
Neal Rosenblum
Geometrix Engineering, Inc.
201 N. 13th Avenue
Hollywood, FL 33019

[cdspk]

With any large identical pattern which once done doesn't require much development, the aim is always to minimise the feature count to be regened. Chris' suggestion is good because the instances are simpler than their driving parent - also you can add features to the driving group and your surface set will update accordingly - if you pattern a group you cannot add elements to the driving group.

Another method is to model the honeycomb sheet in a seperate part file and then import it to the current model where it can be cut to size - Insert > Shared Data > Merge This will then be a neutral feature in the main model. If you know the honeycomb size is not going to change you could even break the Dependent link to the associated model.

Sean