hexagonal array

Yes - Sweep-creator and ring-modifier should do it:

Cheers
Frank
 

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These are no cylinders - it´s a 6 sided ring actually like the torus here which will work also:

Cheers
Frank
 

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These are no cylinders - it´s a 6 sided ring actually like the torus here which will work also:

Cheers
Frank

Ahh! I forgot about the torus. That worked well. Thanks. Now to figure out my original problem: the quantum dot structure with all of this balls. Misoversaturated created what I need to make early on in this thread but I can't figure out how that tetrahedron array turned into spheres.
 
I´m not so familiar with all that platonic solids. But if you can model it you can attache spheres to its points. And via script we can extract splines from the edges and make sweep-objects from it - roughly.

Cheers
Frank
 
I can't figure out how that tetrahedron array turned into spheres.

Hi Flip,

like Frank said, that's a Particle Mesh in point mode.
(The point is to model a structural object that has vertices wherever you want to have spheres later and than have a particle system do it.)
After creating a hexagonal pattern, a first Particle Mesh can be used to produce an array of tetrahedrons.
That needs to be transformed into a polygon object (Tools/Particle/Particle>Polygon) before it can be duplicated and stacked via snapping.
There will be obsolete polygons at one side which have to be deleted.
When the shape is finished and exists as one single object, this will act in a particle mesh with one ball at every point
and at the same time can be used with the polygon-to-spline script in a sweep creator to make cylindric connections between the balls.
If not every tetrahedron edge is needed for such a connection, those could be deleted afterwards or maybe a simpler guide mesh modeled, depending from what you actually need.

Please feel free to ask for step by step guidance any time; Frank, Zoohead , me or someone else from the forum surely will be ready to help :smile:

Also please have a look at the similar task in this thread.
 
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Thanks Mis; I'll see what I can come up with today, but I may need those instructions. You guys are all great and I really appreciate the help. We are trying to build our department into a good resource for the researchers here at our University for producing diagrams and models of their research. I'm the illustrator here and my bag of 2D tricks needs some 3D help.
 
stumped

I've been trying to use pod's example of creating a tetrahedron matrix to create the points where the balls would snap too, but I've gotten nowhere. I get stuck on just creating the tetrahedron so it's sitting flat and then sizing and rotating it properly to line up with the hexagonal plane that I've made.
 
Can you upload what you have so far?

Cheers
Frank

Sure here's my test file. It has the top half of the structure and the top plane with a particle mesh of balls attached to it (where the offset is coming from I can't figure out). Pod's model is more accurate to what i want to do: the stack of oranges kind of thing.

I also couldn't figure out how to mirror the all of the layers to make the complete piece. The Mirror tool is always grayed out when I select the hex plane.

Thanks for your help.
 

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I get stuck on just creating the tetrahedron so it's sitting flat and then sizing and rotating it properly to line up with the hexagonal plane that I've made.

Now that you mention it I remember having the same problem when I tried that, sorry for not mentioning.

The cheetah tetrahedron object is tilted at some crazy angle so that you won't get it sitting straight.

Instead use the fractal object in tetrahedron mode, these are orientated nicely.
You can apply the ruler tool to see the base length and scale to fit a certain value.

There are four elements at minimum, make editable and delete all except for one.

screenshot.png

Then you will have a weird eccentric pivot point, select all polygons and move with transform tool set to raster snapping over the original pivot center (somehow the center pivot command from the coord system tool didn't work here).
 
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Now that you mention it I remember having the same problem when I tried that, sorry for not mentioning.

The cheetah tetrahedron object is tilted at some crazy angle so that you won't get it sitting straight.

Instead use the fractal object in tetrahedron mode, these are orientated nicely.
You can apply the ruler tool to see the base length and scale to fit a certain value.

There are four elements at minimum, make editable and delete all except for one.

Then you will have a weird eccentric pivot point, select all polygons and move with transform tool set to raster snapping over the original pivot center (somehow the center pivot command from the coord system tool didn't work here).

I don't see a "Type" drop down menu under Properties for the fractal. Is this a feature of the beta?
 
For the next step this tetrahedron can be put into a particle mesh made from the hexagonal grid (which needs of course the same triangle base length).

The weird thing here is now that the polygon mode doesn't work except you would select all "upside" triangles only and assign to this selection.

Or you use the particle mesh's point mode, but then you get one more element per row (you could shorten the hexagonal grid accordingly).

screenshot.png
 
The beta is stable, fully functional and can be freely downloaded, so I can recommend.

On the other hand, if you don't want to change the horse during the ride, try a disc with three corners and two sections, collapse the middle and drag the middle point up.
Use ruler tool again to get all sides to the same length (that may not be accurate by dragging but you can type values into the transform tool's parameter fields).
 
The cheetah tetrahedron object is tilted at some crazy angle so that you won't get it sitting straight.

Instead use the fractal object in tetrahedron mode.

I got stuck on the tetrahedron object and it's angles as well, then gave up. The fractal object looks promising. Thanks for the tip. :D
 
Welcome Chris,

do we have a growing quantum dot community here :smile:

Midnight is approaching here and my pillow is already calling,
so I will advance with the next steps already.

If finally the grid is populated with tetrahedrons, this whole particle thing needs to be turned into a single object by particle>polygon command.

Now we select all polygons and duplicate (copy - paste) them and then move those above the original array.

In order to snap them to the tips of those beneath, one must double-click on the little ball in the center of the transform tool so it gets blue.

Then click on the outer point of the front edge tetrahedron and the transform gadget will stick there; double-click middle again to leave the gadget mode.

Now snapping to components is to be activated in the transform tool properties.
Dragging by the transform center to the tip of the bottom edge tetrahedron will align the copied tetrahedron array nicely on top of the original one, all within the same object, just by manipulating duplicated polygons.

There will now be three rows of overhang polygons on the other side of the object which can be deleted (area select in point mode recommended).

The Optimize Tool needs to be applied to weld all points together (otherwise doubled points in the same place will cause problems later when we assign balls to them with a particle mesh).

tut.gif

This procedure of doubling the array and dragging-snapping it on top of the other has to be repeated until the whole upper half is completed, and then the bottom half too (or maybe use symmetry for that).

I will stop here for today and meet you guys again tomorrow!
 
Thanks Misoversaturated.

I went back to the Tetrahedron, and ignored the weird angles. Make the tetrahedron editable. In Polygon mode, select, copy and paste the tetrahedron, move the copy away from the original, then snap the copied polygon to the original at the vertices. Repeat until you have enough tetrahedrons. Optimise. Then add them to a Particle Mesh. Nest a sphere into the particle mesh and adjust the radius to suit. (Make the spheres inflatable, and you could hide a Mars Rover in the middle. ;) )

This is the first time I have tried the particle mesh. I stumbled upon it when playing around with it after following Frank's tyre tread instructions.
 

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Hi Chris
* Your basic set of a quadruplet of tetrahedra is - by itself - a particle mesh of tetrahedra baed on a tetrahedron (shown in wire mode). No need for copy / paste and snapping, just rotate by 90°.
* As V7 does not show stacked particle meshes you need to dissolve it for the sub level of PMs, anyway.
* In the end, it is a bit like stacking kiwis (a flightless fruit from China :rolleyes:
 

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