Grid arrays with 'trimmed' edge components
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I apologise if this has been covered elsewhere. I haven't searched the forum, because I wasn't sure what terminology people would use. I have searched the 3DW for arrayed components which do what I want but found none. This indicates to me that no-one has created this sort of thing yet, not uploaded an example, or it can't be done.
What I would like to create is an array of a component, defining the start point, and then when I scale the DC, if the scale does not correspond to a module length, the last modules in the array get 'trimmed'.
All the DC arrays I have seen tend to do one of 2 things, they either adjust the final size so that the DC corresponds to the nearest number of complete sub-components, or the sizes of the sub-components change to accommodate the final length.
In reality, as we all know, what would happen with tiles and most panels, is that the setting out point would be determined at the start, and as the components are added, they would just be trimmed at the edges to achieve the required overall size. It isn't always practical to adjust the size of a room or building (or even the component) to avoid cutting at the edges.
I have created linear arrays in DCs, but I'm not sure how to make them behave in the way described above. Anyone have any ideas?
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I think you could do it using an 'if' formula for the len attribute. Might look something like this:
if(copy=copies,(grid!len-((copies-1)*setlen)),setlen) where grid!len is the overall size of the row and setlen is an attribute called setlen that equals the normal size of the tile.The above should work for resizing a row of tiles, and you should be able to make it work in a similar fashion by making each row a component and then reusing the same formula to resize the row.
I'll have a go at getting an example working, will probably make a lot more sense than the above.
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I would think you could make a DC that has one sub-component that is named "tile fixed size" that is as the name suggested a fixed module. Then there would be another tile named "tile trimmed" that would be used for the left over space. You could set if there should be two equally sized trim pieces on each end, or full tile on one side and just one trimmed on the other.
If instead of linear, this is a matrix you would have more tile types.
- tile fixed
- tile trimmed x
- tile trimmed y
- tile trimmed xandy
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You can see something like what you're asking about here:
This floor framing DC will add "shorter" cap studs as needed to fill the space that it is sized to.
If you're really just wanting to do tiles, then a texture would be preferable for performance reasons.
Cheers,
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Thanks for the responses! Doesn't look the easiest of things to do though. I do think that there is a lot of demand for this sort of thing however.
Scott is quite right in that for something like tiles, a texture would be better for performance, but for things like panels, where the joints and setting-out are critical, you do need a component like this.
Also single linear arrays with the same property. Stuff like copings, kerbs, ridge tiles and that sort of thing.
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