So I’m trying to model this gate that utilizes perforated steel. We’re talking 1/8” holes that are 3/8” on center, 4 panels of the stuff each 5’x16”. Is there a faster way to draw those tens of thousands of circles besides just drawing one, move with a copy, populate the first row on the short side, then select that whole row and start doing the same working across? I started copying multiple rows as I went, but it got to the point I was copying so many circles that the app painfully bogs down, and does it twice per copy since I can’t drag it the precise distance I need to, so I have to drag it over, let it do it’s thing, then type in the correct distance and wait for it to do it again.

I gave up trying tbh. It’s one thing to select the circles en masse and wait while the app copies them, but when I realized I’d have to click each individual face to extrude them through the sheet. . . I’m not clicking on over 10,000 faces. Unrelated to this post, but don’t feel like starting another. This gate is based on a 1.5” square tube frame. I know for a fact I used 1.5” dimensions in my sketches, but somehow as I’m finishing it up, the frame is now 2” square, my hinge has a massive block surrounding it, and a section of one side of a piece of tube has somehow been sunken when it was never separated from the surrounding surface. How are these things happening?

Please can you send us the workspace via support@shapr3d.com, let’s take a look and get back to you as soon as possible.

The image shown measures 300 x 300mm [approx one foot square] with 19 x 19 Holes it took approximately 6 minutes and that includes fluffing the first copy and dropping it accidentally, requiring careful selection and deleting the unwanted overlapping row. [IMG_0420] It seems you have created your Sheet Material and then Sketched on the surface? This requires selecting all the Holes and then dragging the surfaces through to form the holes. Alternatively create a Closed Sketch of your Material, Sketch one row of Holes and Move-Copy them into the positions required. Then select the Material surface and Extrude it. By Sketching an appropriate sized perforated panel you can do as suggested by Victor, repeat import and manipulate as required.

To Victor, I don’t have the pro version to export files. How do I send it to you? To Gelphyn, yes, I sketched the cross section of the sheet, then extruded it across the space it needed to occupy, then sketched the holes on its face.

Okay, I see. Please tell me your userId via email to support@shapr3d.com and then we will take it from there. Thanks a lot for your patience.

Start by Sketching the Plan of a Portion of your Sheet. 16" wide x [say] 15" that x 4 will provide the 60" [5’] needed. I have found it possible to manipulate 5,000 Sketches [AKA Lines/Edges/???] in a single Sketch. However as you have discovered things get slowed down, that is the reason for the suggestion to work with smaller panels that will build efficiently into the Design you need to create. This is how my Design above was commenced: [IMG_0421] The Rectangle was drawn first on the Grid, choose a Grid Size compatible with the Hole Spacing [I did not as can be seen]. Sketch the whole of the first row of Circles shown highlighted in Light Blue. Move-Copy the entire row of would be Holes. Obviously repeat as necessary, things may get glitchy and it may be necessary to revise your Panel size to a shorter length, considering your 16" width specification, it may be necessary to drop to [say] 10" length. The end result should look similar to the above but with your Hole sizes and Spacing. One Tap on the Panel surface produces: [IMG_0422] Extrude to the desired thickness and Export the design as [say] Master Panel. Repeat of above ‘By Sketching an appropriate sized perforated panel you can do as suggested by Victor, repeat import and manipulate as required.’ However you should be aware that you may not be able to Export in the Free Version, Victor could possibly chime in on this? The Sketch of the above consists of 365 Sketches [361 Circles and 4 Lines] suggesting that you could start at 16" x 20" that x 3 will provide the desired 60" length. Be aware that this is not a statement that can be backed up from actual experience, at present, I have a project to recreate a Perforated Exhaust Muffler Guard in an upside-down U section. That will be done by Projecting the Line of would be holes onto the Curved portion of the Guard surface.

I definitely can’t import/export with the free version. But I can create that elsewhere within the space then translate it into position. I’d assume the two methods are functionally the same.

There is plenty of space but every thing on a Plane will add to the total count within the Sketch for that particular Plane. The following is approaching a replication of your desired Perforated Panel. It measures, and I have used artistic licence [read: cheated if you like for appearance sake] 31mm x 1,800mm x 5mm thick. That should be a good strong gate :grin: The Circles were formed as previously into the first row and that was copied 10 times. The 100 would be Holes were then copied until it became too ponderous to add more. At that point the Sheet was 75% complete in Sketch form, but the Sheet Surface refused to Extrude. The line showing alongside the darkened area of the Sheet measures 900mm, and the Circles beyond that limit were removed. The surface yielded to Extrusion after a considerable amount of processing and was adjust to the chosen value in a similar time. There are 3000 Holes in the Sheet at this point. So it seems it would be possible to create the Sheet in two halves. [IMG_0428] After Extrusion: [IMG_0431] The .shapr File: Note it is too big to load here [13.5MB according to DropBox] so on a temporary basis it can be downloaded from: S3D Perforated Panel Test The above File will be removed soon so grab it while you can, please post when you [Hux83] have downloaded it. Of course any other interested are most welcome to participate.

It’s not letting me do anything with the file. For reference, this is the gate and the large flat areas are what will be made from the perforated steel. [image] These are the pictures I took when I was still trying to do the perforations. Given the number of sketches at which you and I both bogged down at, I think this may just be a bridge too far. Each of those four panels in the gate has more than 20k perforations. [image] [image]

You are absolutely correct it is right on the edge of possibility. I have been playing with the Sheet, Rotating the Body and timing the processing. Extruding was taking 02:00 minutes and Rotating 90º was 02:33. The movement of the Body during Rotation was normal until hesitation was accepted as the new position, then it became coffee time. Although this is not intended to be a negative remark but rather an acceptance of limitations. In my view Users need to ask themselves how much fine detail is needed. The size of the Gate as drawn means that the Holes would appear little more than a shade or texture. A fully finished Design would need a mighty big Screen to show it off properly. Displaying a close up of a small area seems like a reasonable solution? Sorry to hear that the Download is proving to be a problem. If you are using an early version iPad it may be on the limit also? I found the experience interesting, it did not take too long. I had a meal and an hour long telephone call so not all the time between posts was spent on the iPad. I am satisfied to have reached the limits of what I consider to be comfortable S3Ding. It has confirmed previous findings but within a practical requirement specification. I always find doing something that you have never done before is a good grey matter exercise, and as always practicing make progress toward perfection. Thanks for presenting the opportunities.

Faster way to copy things?

Workshop Modeling Questions

LePapa August 20, 2019, 3:18pm 16

Same story as… Very slow and shutting down again and again

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Faster way to copy things?

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