I’ve got a pattern of many objects and wish to change the dimension of all the objects (such as making them all longer). However, I’ve looked through the history and haven’t discovered how to modify the object which makes up the pattern. Even if I select all the object in the pattern (from the items list) I can’t seem to modify all at the same time. Anyone know how? Thanks.
Hi @Geoffree3,
The best way is to do this by modifying the body in History. Here is an example (low res to keep file size in limits)
To change the length of your object, you will either modify an extrusion, or a sketch. This example does both.
Thank Bob3DPO*
I got it working. It’s a bit confusing as one has to edit the ‘extrusion’ to alter the height and edit the sketch for the other dimensions. It would be much easier to manipulate the ‘base’ object as normal and this is replicated on the other copies. I did try adding a slope to the end face of the blocks but couldn’t manage this in the extrusion. Again, this would be easy if we had a ‘base’ object.
Surprisingly for parametric modeling, that pattern actually creates new objects rather than placeholders for copies, which would be more efficient (especially with many copies) and easier to edit (unless of course you wanted new objects to edit each, which could be an option).
Finally, isn’t it annoying that when editing a history item, the object (or pattern) one is working on is deselected and one has to go and select it again! Lack of attention to HCI issues.
- I guess this is a Star Wars reference
PSA:Grandchildren are Great! They can even help decide your screen name! 
There is always room for improvement. You have some good points.
Try this for a sloped face, or if you decide that all copies need a fillet, or whatever…
Put a breakpoint in immediately before the pattern step. Make your change(s) to the original body. Remove the breakpoint.
Once I’d figured out how to put a breakpoint before* it works as I wanted, modifying the ‘base’ object. Excellent!
I thought I’d look more at this parametric modelling and would recommend the Introduction to History Based Parametric Modeling on the support site (https://support.shapr3d.com/hc/en-us/articles/12470906447900-Introduction-to-History-Based-Parametric-Modeling). Quite a lot to take in but plenty of use of the breakpoint
Thanks again for your help
- Seemed odd to have to click on the previous step and put a breakpoint after that step, when it seems more intuitive to click on the step you want to halt at (in my case the pattern step).