Warning: The following information is for Beta use only, the feature and functionality as described below may not be released with SolidWorks 2014 and therefore should not be used in any production environment nor used as reference for any production work.
SolidWorks 2014 Beta brings you a new pattern type, Dimension Driven Pattern.
The idea behind Dimension Driven Pattern is For SolidWorks to understand how you have created the seed(s) for the pattern and replicate that intent at each pattern instance location.
You must manually activate or deactivate this pattern by running the EnableDDPattern.swp and DisableDDPattern.swp macros, respectively. They can be found attached to this post. The command shows up in the Insert > Pattern/Mirror menu but is disabled by default. Upon activating the pattern via the macro, the pattern will be available from the Toolbar and CommandManager as well.
The sample model for this pattern is attached to this post. Each pattern is suppressed.
This pattern will work on:
- Planar and non-planar faces
- Extruded, Revolved, Swept, and Lofted Boss/Base
- Extruded, Revolved, Swept, and Lofted Cut
- Fillet & Chamfer
This pattern will not work on:
- Less common solid features
- Surfacing features
- Sheet metal features
- Weldment features
- Reference geometry
- Other patterns
- It cannot be used as the seed of another part or assembly level pattern
There are several caveats to working with Dimension Driven Patterns:
- The instance must not form a separate body. This means that the instance must be at least partially located on the planar or non-planar face. If one instance of the pattern fails for any reason, the pattern may look like it has been formed properly but there will be a warning displayed on the feature in the FeatureManager. We are working to improve this for Beta 3.
- You cannot select and pattern reference geometry (i.e. Planes, Axes, Coordinate Systems, or Points) but they can be used to locate or create the seed feature(s).
- You can control only two driving dimensions of the seed feature(s). These can be any combination of the dimensions used to locate or create any of the selected seed(s).
- Any seed selected after the first seed must have all of its references tied back to the first seed selected. If a seed is not constrained to the first seed selected, the pattern may have unwanted results.
- In order to see the pattern results without exiting the PM, you will need to enable the Preview check box toward the bottom of the PropertyManager. Please note, generating the preview will likely take as long as generating the final pattern result as they are performing the same work.
The images below show the results of improperly and properly constrained pin geometry, respectively. The improperly constrained geometry has the pin constrained to the edges of the main plate while the properly constrained pin is constrained to the boss (two different methods shown). Both the boss and the pin are being patterned in these examples.
The images below show the results of what happens when the Output diagonal only option is disabled or enabled, respectively. Think of the pattern instances as a matrix of locations [1, 1], [1, 2], [1, 3], [1, 4], [2, 1], [2, 2], … , [4, 4] and the Output diagonal only option as only creating the instances located on the diagonal of the matrix, i.e. [1, 1], [2, 2], [3, 3], and [4, 4]. If the resultant instance matrix is not square, e.g. a 3x4 matrix, the diagonal output will be that of the shortest side of the matrix, i.e. [1, 1], [2, 2], and [3, 3]
The images below show the result of selecting the X-offset value (1.00) of the square boss and the Z-offset value (0.500) of the pin and what happens when the Output diagonal only option is disabled or enabled, respectively. Note that the pins in the first image (diagonal output disabled) are stacking each incremental length one on top of the other in the first image. Look at the preview geometry when editing the pattern to see this better.
The examples shown above are very simple but you can create very complex pattern results when using non-planar faces with various end conditions such as the image below.
