Project: HiCAD 3-D

Clone Parts, Parametric

3-D Standard > Clone > Param.

Use this function to copy ("clone") parts on a grid via

• linear displacement,
• rotation,
• along a polyline and
• translation + rotation.

You can combine these different procedures with each other, creating more complex patterns in this way.

Let us assume that you want to clone a part on a grid - first by linear displacement, and then copy these clones once more via a rotatory pattern. With the Clone parts, parametric function you can achieve the desired result in one step.

When you call the function, the Clone part dialogue window will be displayed.

The dialogue window consists of the following areas:

• Parts
  Here you choose the parts to be cloned.
• Pattern
  In this area you choose the cloning pattern and specify the desired parameters.
  
• Omissions
  Here you can exclude individual clones from the generation.
• Fitting mode
  Here you determine, amongst other things, the part structure of the clonings.

During input of data, a semi-transparent preview of the clones based on the inputs in the dialogue window will be displayed in your drawing. Click on the Preview button to make the preview better visible. Click on the OK button to create the clones as shown in the preview.

In the preview the original of the active pattern in the pattern list will be displayed in green, and the copy in red.

Parts

When you call the function, the currently active part or the active part list will be displayed. You can add further parts for selection by clicking on the Select part symbol and choosing the part in the drawing or in the ICN. Already selected parts will be removed form the list when they are selected again. To delete parts from the list, you can also right-click and choose Remove element(s) from the list.

As long as the selection list is highlighted by a frame in the Special colour Marking 5 you can select parts without having to click on the .

Pattern

Here you choose the pattern for the cloning. To select a pattern, click on its symbol and enter the required values.

As already mentioned, you have the option to combine different patterns here, e.g.:

To remove a pattern from the pattern list, click on the corresponding symbol.

The following patterns are available:

Linear patterns

Rotatory patterns

Polyline patterns

Translatory + rotatory patterns.

Linear pattern

Use this function to create clones by specifying a direction vector.

Settings for linear patterns

Direction
You can choose any edge or a coordinate axis as the direction vector. To determine the direction, click on the symbol and then define the vector by choosing an edge or by specifying a start point and an end point. You can also right-click to open a context menu with further functions for determining the displacement direction:

Clones
Enter the number of clones here. Please remember that the original will not be added to the number of clones here! If you wish to specify the number of clones in positive and negative direction, deactivate the Clone, one-sided checkbox in the dialogue window.

Distance
You have different options to determine the distance between the individual clones:

• Individual distance 
  Determines the distance between neighbouring clones by entering a value.
• Total distance
  Determines the distance between original and last clone. The other clones will be distributed with equal distances between them. The distance between neighbouring clones will be calculated based on the number of clones and the specified total distance.
• Individual distance from direction
  Like Individual distance, but with the difference that the distance between 2 neighbouring clones will be calculated automatically according to the chosen direction vector. If you have chosen a coordinate axis as direction vector, the distance will be automatically set to 1.
• Total distance from direction
  Like Total distance, but with the difference that the distance will be calculated automatically according to the selected direction vector. If you have chosen a coordinate axis as direction vector, the distance will be automatically set to 1.
• Different individual distances
  With this option you can specify different distances between two neighbouring clones. Enter the required value into the corresponding input field. For instance, if you want to change the distance between the original and the 1st clone, enter the distance in field 1. The distance between the 3rd and the 4th clone must be entered in field 4etc.

• Up to reference, with distance
  Here you determine the distance between the original and the last clone by the distance of two reference elements. The start reference must be a point, the end reference a point, an edge or a surface. The number of clones will then be calculated automatically based on the entered distance and the determined reference distance. Furthermore, you can specify an offset for the last clone here. Its distance to the end reference will then be the sum of the specified distance and the offset.

You can also determine several start and end references by clicking on the symbol next to the corresponding input field and selecting the desired element. The number of the selected elements will be shown in the input field, e.g.:

In this case, always the smallest distance resulting from the specified start and end references will be used. This distance can be shown by clicking on the symbol.

If you select an already selected element again, it will be removed from the list of references. To remove all start or end references, click on the Delete symbol in the respective input field.

• Up to reference, with number
  Like Up to reference, with distance, but with the difference that you specify the number of clones here and the distance between 2 clones is calculated automatically.

• Up to reference, with max. indiv. distance
  The distance between the original and the last clone is determined here by the distance between the selected start reference and end reference. From this value and the specified maximum individual distance HiCAD will calculate the number of clones in such a way that their distance will not exceed the specified individual distance.

Please note:

If the chosen end reference for the distance options

• Up to reference, with distance
• Up to reference, with number
• Up to reference, with max. indiv. distance

is an edge, please note the following: If the straight line running through the start reference and in the cloning direction does not intersect with the end reference, the minimum distance of the straight line to the end reference will be selected automatically.

Rotatory pattern

Use this function to clone the active part or part list with a rotatory pattern, i.e. through rotation about an axis.

Settings for rotatory pattern

Axis
An arbitrary edge or coordinate axis can be defined as the rotation axis. Click on the symbol and define the rotatation axis by selecting an edge or by specifying the start point and the end point. You can also right-click to open a context menu with further functions for determining the axis , as you would do for the Direction of the linear pattern.

Clones
In this area you enter the number of copies. In contrast to other cloning functions, the original will not be added to the number of copies here. If you wish to specify the number of clones in positive and negative direction, deactivate the Clone, one-sided checkbox in the dialogue window.

Angle
The rotation can either be performed by specifying an angle, or fully symmetrical.

• Individual angle
  The specified angle is the angle between two copies.
• Total angle
  The specified angle is the complete rotation angle, i.e. the angle about which the last clone will be rotated in relation to the original. The rotation angles of the other clones are detected depending on the specified number of copies. For example, if you have entered 3 clones and a rotation angle of 45°, the rotation angle for the second copy will be 15°.
• Full circle
  Performs a 360° rotation. Original and last copy coincide exactly.

Also rotate / Fixed point
If you choose Also rotate, the clones will be also rotated along the rotation path. An alternative to this is Fixed point, where an additional path point needs to be specified via which the clones will be moved on the rotation path.

Individual / Total distance
The height of the copies relative to the original can be changed. In this way you can, for example, create patterns in the form of a spiral. The value of the vertical displacement can be specified as total or individual value. If you select the Total distanceoption, the specified value will be the displacement of the last copy relative to the original. This means that if you have , for example, selected 5 Copies and specified a Total value of 10, each of the copies will be vertically displaced by a value of 2. If you selected the Individual distanceoption, this value will apply for each individual copy.

 Example - Rotatory pattern

Polyline pattern

Use this function to clone the active part or part list along a polyline.

Settings for polyline pattern

Polyline
Both planar sketches and 3-D sketches can be used as polylines. Click on the symbol and identify an edge of the sketch. If you click on  you have the option to create a new sketch, or process an existing planar sketch:

Start value input / Start point selection
These options make sense if the part to be cloned is not located at the start of the polyline. In this case you have the option to consider the distance of the part from the polyline start by specifying a start value. You can either specify the start value by a start value input or by selecting a start point on the polyline. If you have selected the Start point selectionoption, click on the symbol and specify the required point on the polyline.

Fixing

• No fixing
  If you choose this option, the clones will be aligned to the polyline.
• Fixed point
If you choose this option, the part will be moved along the polyline. The alignment will be preserved.

• Fixed direction
  If you choose this option, the selected direction vector will be preserved as the axis when performing the transformation along the polyline. In this case the clones can only be rotated in one plane and will be not "thrown around" in all three directions, following the polyline route. This option makes sense if, for instance, parts are to be placed along a spiral. To select a vector, click on the symbol and define the vector by selecting an edge or specifying two points.

Clones
Enter the number of clones here. Please remember that the original will not be added to the number of clones here! If you wish to specify the number of clones in positive and negative direction, deactivate the Clone, one-sided checkbox in the dialogue window.

Distance
You have the following options to determine the distance between the individual clones:

• Individual distance 
  Determines the distance between neighbouring clones by entering a value.
• Total distance
  Determines the distance between original and last clone. The other clones will be distributed with equal distances between them. The distance between neighbouring clones will be calculated based on the number of clones and the specified total distance.
• Total distance from polyline
  The distance between original and last clone will be automatically determined by the length of the polyline.
• Different individual distances
  With this option you can specify different distances between two neighbouring clones. Enter the required value into the corresponding input field. For instance, if you want to change the distance between the original and the 1st clone, enter the distance in field 1. The distance between the 3rd and the 4th clone must be entered in field 4.

 Examples - Polyline pattern

Translatory + rotatory pattern

Use this function to clone the active part or part list with translatory and rotatory patterns.

Settings for translatory + rotatory patterns

Direction
You can choose any edge or a coordinate axis as the direction vector. To determine the direction, click on the symbol and then define the vector by choosing an edge or by specifying a start point and an end point. You can also right-click to open a context menu with further functions for determining the displacement direction.

Clones
Enter the number of clones here. Please remember that the original will not be added to the number of clones here! If you wish to specify the number of clones in positive and negative direction, deactivate the Clone, one-sided checkbox in the dialogue window.

Distance
You have different options to determine the distance between the individual clones:

• Individual distance 
  Determines the distance between neighbouring clones by entering a value.
• Total distance
  Determines the distance between original and last clone. The other clones will be distributed with equal distances between them. The distance between neighbouring clones will be calculated based on the number of clones and the specified total distance.
• Individual distance from direction
  Like Individual distance, but with the difference that the distance between 2 neighbouring clones will be calculated automatically according to the chosen direction vector. If you have chosen a coordinate axis as direction vector, the distance will be automatically set to 1.

Rotation axis
An arbitrary edge or coordinate axis can be defined as the rotation axis. Click on the symbol and define the rotatation axis by selecting an edge or by specifying the start point and the end point. You can also right-click to open a context menu with further functions for determining the axis , as you would do for the Direction of the linear pattern.

Angle
The rotation can either be performed by specifying an angle, or fully symmetrical.

• Individual angle
  The specified angle is the angle between two copies.
• Total angle
  The specified angle is the complete rotation angle, i.e. the angle about which the last clone will be rotated in relation to the original. The rotation angles of the other clones are detected depending on the specified number of copies. For example, if you have entered 3 clones and a rotation angle of 45°, the rotation angle for the second copy will be 15°.
• Full circle
  Performs a 360° rotation. Original and last copy coincide exactly.

 Example - Translatory + rotatory pattern

Omissions

Here you have the possibility to omit individual copies, i.e. to suppress their generation. These can be selected either in the preview with the cursor or, by specifying the corresponding working step, entered into the table. Please note that the omission will apply globally, i.e. to the end result, and not to the individual patterns.

Die Symbole:

	Table Opens the tables with the omissions.
	Select omission Click on this symbol to select the clones to be omitted directly in the preview. At the same time, the corresponding entry will be added to the table of omissions.
	Add omission Adds a new omission to the table, which can then be edited.

When manually adding omissions in the table, the number of working steps (patterns) must be considered. The original always has the number 0 in the respective working step. If you have selected only one pattern, the clones will have the numbers 1, 2, 3 etc. In case of two patterns there will be number pairs: The first number, i.e. the input field 1, stands for the clone from the first pattern, the second numberin the input field 2 for the clone from the second pattern. For each further pattern, a column will be added to the table.

An example:

The image below shows an original, which is a cylinder with a height of 50 and a diameter of 15 in the top view.

Now, choose Param... and define, in the first step, a linear pattern (Direction: Y-axis) and, in a second step, a rotatory pattern (Rotation axis: Z-axis) with the settings as shown below.

The image on the left shows the preview of the cloning. The image on the right shows the number pairs of the individual clones for the sake of illustration.

So, if you want to omit the following elements, the table must look as shown below:

Fitting mode

Here you determine how you want the clones to be inserted. You have the following options:

• Without superordinate part
  The clones will be created on the same level as the original, and with the name of the original. This means that if the original is a main part, the clones will also be main parts. If the original is a sub-part, the clones will also be sub-parts - on the same level as the original. In both cases, you can approach and edit original and clones separately.
  When you select this option, a superordinate part or assembly needs to exist. if the Feature checkbox is active, the Part cloning feature will be assigned to the superordinate part or assembly. For instance, if you have cloned an assembly that is a sub-assembly to a main assembly, the feature will be assigned to the main assembly.

• Create assembly
  Assigns the original and its clones as sub-parts to a new assembly. The individual clones will obtain the name of the corresponding original. Name and properties of the new assembly can be specified after closing the dialogue window. If the Feature checkbox is active, the Part cloning feature will be assigned to the new assembly.

• Union
  Merges the original and its clones into one part. The name of the part will be the name of the original. This option is not possible for some parts, e.g. for assemblies, parts with free edges, sketches, parts with isolated points, parts with free surfaces or part lists (multiple selections). In such cases the selection list will be marked with the symbol. When you move the cursor over the symbol, you will obtain further information.
  If theoriginbal has no Feature, the Feature checkbox will be greyed out when you activate the Union option.

• Feature
  If this checkbox is active, a feature will be created for the cloned part. The feature Part cloning will always be assigned to the superordinate assembly or, in case of mergings with the Union function, to the unioned part.

• Clone, one-sided
  If you deactivate this checkbox you have the option to create clones in both directions, i.e. additionally in opposite direction of a vector or a rotation axis.

 Beispiel - Kombination von Mustern

Please note:

When you have activated the Feature option, you can add further patterns to a parametric cloning. Just double-click the Part cloning feature to start the function dialogue anew.

Transform + Clone Part (3-D) • Transform Part (3-D) • Referencing (3-D)