Duplicating a feature across multiple items.

robert_garvin · August 7

I have these hexagon tiles, meant to be hung on the wall on a frame. I'm at the point now where I need to design said frame, as well as the snap joints on the tiles themselves.

Besides using the pattern tool, is there a recommended way to make the same adjustment to each tile so I only have to design once, edit once, then apply it to each tile?

If patterning is the best tool, Can I assume that patterning the part is more effective than patterning the sketch?

(now that i'm typing this out, the frame will be the same for each tile, so the only thing that truly needs patterning are the snaps on the actual tile.)

MDesign · August 7

Project looks like a good candidate for configurations rather than patterns

EvanReese · August 7

I agree that configurations might have been a cleaner way to make all of these variations.

To answer your question though, when I want to use duplicated geometry like this I'd consider two approaches, each using a different custom feature:

Transform Pattern - is a good way to pattern features or parts within a single part studio. Best when that geometry isn't needed anywhere else (other part studios, documents, etc)
Super Derive - In this situation, you can create a part studio of the geometry to repeat (even a configured one) and then derive, place, and boolean it all in one go. This is ideal for situations where you may want to treat that geometry as a standard across a lot of parts or projects. Your snap fits sound more like this case to me. You can always edit the other part studio to change it everywhere the pattern is used, even across an entire organization (though where it's linked in other documents you'll still have to manually update the reference, which I see as a good thing to prevent massive unintentional changes to existing data.

Duplicating a feature across multiple items.

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