Make A Pattern

[Zina Perko]

Hi guys, I work in film and television. I have been asked to make a snoot for a light. The snoot is a box that fits on a light and focuses the beam. At the end of the snoot will be a honeycomb pattern made up of 1/4" hexagons. I need to make the honeycomb 14.5" by 11.75" and the honeycomb depth will be 1.5" I am having trouble making the honeycomb. Anyone have an idea?

I am brand new to Fusion 360. I am creating several Rectangles with the pattern tool. i want to be able to use user parimeters in specific instances of components that were created from the pattern. I saw this thread:

Thanks @etfrench. That is what I am doing now. From what I can tell, you need to do this for each individual component, is that right? I'm hoping to be able to select all (in my case 19+) components and make them each independent.

The videos in the previously linked thread show how to create a pattern on a path where the length is changing based on the angle of the path. A marimba is very similar to a harmonica (other than one gets hit with a mallet and the other uses air flow to create the vibrations ). Think of the marimba keys as the spaces in the harmonica comb in the videos.

Thanks @etfrench. At the end of the day, Ideally I need to be able to set the first key length and the last key length and then all the keys that are in between will just be whatever exact length they need to be based on those lengths. So for that reason I can see a path with an angle determined by the first and last key would be fastest. The advantage that I am hoping to find in Fusion vs Sketchup is in being able to create dynamic plans where I can dynamically change things like key length, thickness, Number of keys, and spacing and the wood for the frame, etc will also just dynamically adjust so that I don't have to create new plans for every modification that I make. It seems like it will be possible, but I can tell that I'm a long way away from being able to do this yet in Fusion 360.

Surely this is a bug. If I use the rectangular pattern tool to create an array of circular holes based on a single initial hole, if I apply a fillet to the source hole before applying the pattern, the patterned holes will get the fillet too, but if I apply the fillet after the pattern, only the target hole gets the pattern. This is the expected behaviour.

HOWEVER, if instead of holes I'm creating a pattern of components, changes made to any one of the components after the pattern are applied retrospectively to the source component and therefore it propagates to all components of the pattern. This is NOT the expected behaviour.

In my current design, I have a rectangular pattern of RGB LEDs and I wanted to make them different colors to better represent the functionality of the device, but whenever I change the color of any one of the LEDs, all the LEDs change color, even though each LED is a different component. This makes no sense.

Unfortunately, the only way to make a copy of a component in an "assembly" design that is not a linked clone of the original component is to use copy then paste new.

The default behavior if you use a pattern tool on a component or use copy and (normal) paste, is that the copied component will share the same parameters, and any changes made to one component will be made to all.

I also find this behavior strange, and I think "paste new" is not an intuitive name for the solution. I would never have known what it did unless I looked it up.

It would be great if the pattern tools had a "pattern as new/separate components" option but they don't. Also, there is no way to change a copied and pasted component to an unlinked "new" component after the fact. If you used the normal paste option in the past instead of paste new, you're basically screwed. This should really be improved.

I would really like there to be a solve for this. I often create circular patterns of components that would be extremely painstaking to recreate with a move function, but I then need to make adjustments to specific components after they are in their patterned location. Being able to break the connection between these components would make my workflow so much more efficient.

I agree with you to a point. I use it occasionally on components that I have basically already finished, up to a point, they are individual. I really do not care if the component becomes a dumb solid at this point because i am just going to add features moving forward. I also know how to create work planes as I need them. If I do need to maintain my dependence on the master component I will use another method which is described in the Blog Article and Video.

The main purpose of all of these work around processes is just to get over the hump in the design process that sometimes presents itself. Fusion 360 will evolve and they will become obsolete but until then, I think it is nice to have some options even if they are not perfect solutions.

Sometimes being a customer as opposed to an employee has its benefits! Though, I am lucky enough to work with people who are willing to put the time and effort in to get to an elegant solution to a problem if it is possible. They are usually also more efficient, so everyone wins.

Once you have drafted your pattern, you need to define the different pieces by using the Add New Pattern Piece tool. Click on the tool and select the nodes and curves of the outline of the pattern piece in a clock-wise direction. After selecting the last node or curve, hit Enter. Click on OK on the menu that comes up.

Hang in there @SgtSaint . I have a background in programming/software engineering (40 years+) and 10 years of teaching myself to be a costume guru for community theater and Seamly2D is the best tool I have found. I have lurked since 2017 and seen the transition from the original developer to @Douglas and I have to say that he is on a good track. There is only so much on human can do in a set amount of time. @Grace is great at explaining how things work. This whole community is full of resourceful people. I have done lots for many years with chalk, crayons, pens and pencils and various types of paper and commercial patterns adapted or combined. Seamly community inspired me to get and read some books on patternmaking theory. If you do a lot of costume work, I will bet this tool will save you time. Good luck and welcome

If you are unable to make any (or even some) changes to your Pattern site, PLEASE report it. I just had a long back and forth with Pattern support, and it is an issue they are already working on, and I was told that reporting it helped them determine how wide-spread it was. So please let them know so they can hopefully prioritize correctly.

Just to clarify what I reported/what I'm seeing: I started by trying to change my button colors. After hitting Publish, it said it published, but when I tried to go Back, it told me I had unsaved changes. And the changes did not appear on my website. I also tried changing my theme with the same results. So for me, it doesn't appear I can make any website design changes.

I'm having exactly the same problem, started about 3 weeks ago. First noticed I could not edit my banner/announcement text; hit "DONE" and it bounced back to the outdated text. Now I can't change any of the design attributes: button/background color, font, etc. Although "preview" looks correct, if I hit "publish" the notice "your changes have been published- view your site" appears, but nothing changes.

I can still edit content in the text blocks on the pages, and the blog publisher works but none of the design features. I have been sending chats every few days and I'm told "please be patient while we work on the issue".

Thank you for reporting it repeatedly. Honestly, they obviously broke something, it doesn't seem like it should be that hard to fix. (And I have a background in programming.) It shouldn't take this long.

I've been trying to update -- or delete!-- my now outdated Announcement for 6 weeks. Wasted time getting on Chat twice. They say 'the tech team is working on it' and will get back to me. Seems like Pattern is not a priority for Etsy as they aren't making fees on the site sales?

I have exactly this problem - my prices are wrong at the top which must be affecting sales. I reported it about 3 weeks ago and they said they were working on it - and it's still not fixed. It can't be that hard like the other poster said. Or just give us a workround or just delete the option for now! Ive complained again today asking for a progress report.

@DexterFluffingtonCo have you reported it? I feel like only if enough of us complain will they fix it. Which is unacceptable, given that it makes Pattern pretty much useless. It is completely absurd!

I'm having the same issue and I reported it. It seems like they're not doing anything to fix it. II don't want to keep paying for something that does not work right. 'm thinking of moving my domain to shopify.

I submitted a ticket, and today I contacted support via a chat for the 2nd time to again bring this issue to their attention. I opened my Pattern site on February 23rd, so I have about a week left in my free 30-day trial. I really wanted this to work. I like the idea of having the same inventory, titles, description, etc. Those of you who have had Pattern for awhile, how typical are issues with this platform? Maybe I should just jump ship now.

@earthgrowncrayons there typically aren't issues. But that's because Etsy never touches Pattern. It hasn't made any changes or additions to it pretty much since it was released. As such, I guess something like this was bound to happen.

I was hopeful this was an issue that would be fixed relatively quick, but I see this has been on going for over a month. So strange that with this many folks having the same issue, it wouldn't be a priority for them (Etsy) to fix. I just signed up for Pattern late last week in hopes to save a little on my website cost (switching over from Shopify @$40+/mo), but it appears I shouldn't pull that plug just yet.

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