Pierce a plate from an outline

WhereBlender’s top menu bar, File > Open, then File > Save As.

DoOpen p10-01-start.blend. Then choose File > Save As and give the file a name of your own, so that the start file stays clean.

You should seeOne thin oval on the red and green lines, seen from above: your outline. It is a closed curve, with no gap in its line, and it gives the plate its shape. The small red and white ring inside it is Blender’s 3D cursor: leave it.

It worked whenThe oval is the only thing in the 3D view, apart from the 3D cursor.

WhereThe sidebar at the right of the 3D view (press N with the pointer over the 3D view if it is shut), the CAD/CAM tab. The section bar is the block of small word buttons at the top of that tab.

DoClick Flow in the section bar.

You should seeFlow lights up, and the panels under the section bar change. Flow on Surface comes first.

It worked whenFlow is lit.

WhereThe sidebar, the words Flow on Surface.

DoClick those words once, to fold that panel: it shuts up to its title. If it is already shut, leave it.

You should seeThe Pattern Builder panel moves up, with Make Pattern in it. The picture names the parts of the window this page uses.

It worked whenYou can read Make Pattern without scrolling.

WhereThe 3D view.

DoClick once on the oval’s line, at its right-hand end.

You should seeThe line turns orange.

It worked whenThe line stays orange when you move the pointer away.

If it goes wrongNothing turns orange: the click missed the thin line. Click again, closer to it.

WhereThe Pattern Builder panel.

DoPress Make Pattern.

You should seeThe oval fills with metal and rows of small holes, and the panel fills with numbers. The orange lines only mean that the plate is selected. The panel’s first line, which wraps over several rows, stands under the words “Pattern 1” and gives the count of cells: a cell is one hole. The status bar at the very bottom says it too, but its message fades, and the panel keeps the same figure.

It worked whenThe panel’s first line begins “97 cells”, and the holes stop short of the edge all round.

If it goes wrongYou get a rectangle, not your oval: nothing was selected when you pressed. Press Ctrl+Z once: the rectangle goes. Select the oval, then press again.

WhereThe 3D view, close to the plate’s right-hand end.

DoScroll the mouse wheel to zoom in, point with the pointer to the three things named in the picture (do not click), then scroll back out.

You should seeCell: one hole. Cell (mm) on the panel is its width, flat side to flat side. Rib: a rib, the bar of metal between two holes. Margin: the metal from the edge to the nearest hole.

It worked whenYou can point to each one on your own plate.

WhereThe bottom left corner of the 3D view: Blender’s Adjust Last Operation box, shut, showing only the words Make Pattern. This page calls it the box at the bottom left.

DoClick the words Make Pattern there.

You should seeThe box opens upwards, as in the next picture. It holds this press’s own settings, Plate Thickness among them. Leave the other rows alone. Rib shows 0 mm: that means the add-on chooses, here 0.40.

It worked whenPlate Thickness reads 1 mm.

WhereThe box at the bottom left, the row Plate Thickness.

DoClick the middle of the number once, type the new one, then press Enter.

Type1.20

You should seeThe plate redraws, a little thicker. From straight above you see no change, because you look straight down on the plate: only the number tells you now. You see the thickness from the side in step 16.

It worked whenPlate Thickness reads 1.2 mm.

WhereThe Pattern Builder panel, the twelve family buttons, in four rows of three, under the words “Pattern: Honeycomb”.

DoPress each button in turn, left to right, top row first, and finish on Waves. Watch the plate.

You should seeThe pictures below, laid out as the buttons are, all at Cell (mm) 1.600. A family is the kind of pattern: the line above the buttons names it, and the panel’s first line counts its cells. You need not study each one. From your first press the box at the bottom left has gone: a family button has no box of its own. With Girih the panel warns that “windows” would close: windows are its small inner holes, and at this small cell they stay as metal. Nothing is wrong. Waves repeats in two blocks, so its lines step where the blocks meet.

It worked whenWaves is lit, and the line above the buttons reads “Pattern: Waves”.

WhereThe 3D view with the pointer over it, then the family buttons.

DoPress Ctrl+Z once, then press Honeycomb.

You should seeCtrl+Z takes back your last press: the line above the buttons reads “Pattern: Scales”. If it reads another family, carry on: press Honeycomb. Then the rows of small hexagons come back. This is the safe family for a first plate. The grams on the first line have risen from 3.3 g to 4.0 g, because the plate is now 1.2 mm thick.

It worked whenHoneycomb is lit and the panel’s first line begins “97 cells”.

WhereThe Pattern Builder panel, the field Cell (mm) under the buttons.

DoClick the middle of the number once, type the new one, press Enter, and look at the plate. Go down the table.

You should seeThe holes grow and there are fewer of them, as in the pictures.

It worked whenCell (mm) reads 1.600 again, and the panel counts 97 cells.

WhereThe Pattern Builder panel, the field Rib (mm).

DoClick the middle of the number once, type the new one, press Enter, and look at the plate. Go down the table.

You should seeThe holes stay the same size and stand further apart, so fewer fit.

It worked whenRib (mm) reads 0.400 again, and the panel counts 97 cells.

WhereThe Pattern Builder panel, near its foot. Scroll the sidebar with the mouse wheel if you cannot see it.

DoPress Make Real.

You should seeThe plate looks the same, and the panel now reads “Made real: Plate 1 real”. Before the press its first line began “97 cells”: that is how many holes are cut. Make Real turns the pattern into an ordinary object, “Plate 1 real”. The live plate that made it, the one whose numbers could still change, stays in the file, hidden. Leave it.

It worked whenThe words at the top left of the 3D view end in “Plate 1 real”.

WhereThe section bar at the top of the CAD/CAM tab, then the panel Reports & Checks, further down the sidebar.

DoClick Check in the section bar. Scroll the sidebar down to the block headed Weight, then tick Selected Only.

You should seeThe tick shows. Check opens on other panels first, such as Wall Map: scroll down past them. The words at the top left of the 3D view should still end in “Plate 1 real”. If they do not, click the plate once.

It worked whenSelected Only is ticked.

WhereThe panel Reports & Checks.

DoPress Report Weight, read the line TOTAL, then press Esc.

You should seeA window headed “Weight Report” opens over the screen. It names one part, “Plate 1 real”. Read only the line “TOTAL”: the other lines are for cost and casting, later.

It worked whenYou have read “TOTAL 4.79 g”, and Esc has shut the window.

WhereThe 3D view, with the pointer over it.

DoOrbit the view lower, until you look across the plate as in the picture. Then press Ctrl+S to save your copy.

You should seeThe plate from an angle: flat, even, and 1.20 mm thick, with its holes going right through. A fine broken line along the lower edge is only how Blender draws that edge from this angle, not a crack.

It worked whenYou can see the wall of each hole, and your copy is saved.