Thank You Mark, you are right about the finesse in witch bees build there honeycomb. More even, i am a beekeeper and if you look thru a real fresh honeycomb, build from wax off course, then you see a grid like this one you made with your macro, but on the other side of that honeycomb there is the same grid but moved exactly so much that the crossing point of 3 cells is in the middle of the radius of the grid on this side. The first time i have seen that i was really shocked. They can even build a bunch of cells bigger for the male bees to be born and still everything fits perfectly. A real work of art, and i am quit sure they have to work very hard with thousand of bees to make a comb from 100 x 100 mm for days. Sorry to the Neanderthals :=)
Brilliant. I needed a screen to keep bugs out of the AC exhaust on my trailer. This was about the simplest, most elegant solution I could've asked for. Thanks for a great explanation video as well. One comment - due to dealing with a CNC machine that is configured for inches (shared maker space, not everyone is metric 'aware') I have FreeCAD configured to deal with inches... Interestingly, if you input dimensions without explicitly adding "in" to the dimension, it infers/assumes metric intent. So in order to keep things simple, I use the formula editor for the macro fields and input "nn.n*25.4" and it works just fine.
I'm glad you found it useful. Some property types support units and others do not. I used the unitless, more generic, float type for these properties because then I could allow the user to use negative values where appropriate. For example, when setting the frame size a negative value means the frame border extends inward instead of outward. The unit aware property types don't accept negative values. Another thing about FreeCAD is it's developed and maintained by people from all over the world. In most places the metric system is used exclusively. The key developers are in Germany. Other units are well-supported, such as inches, feet, etc., but there are still quirks here and there that crop up from time to time for non-metric units. This is particularly true for addons (macros and workbenches) developed by the community. Even though I'm American and I think in inches, gallons, feet, miles, I just keep FreeCAD in metric mode and don't even bother testing other modes. If I need to enter something in inches I'll use a formula as you have done.
Are we able to use this honeycomb mesh to boolean? I have a part with several faces that I'd like to cutout a honeycomb pattern on but haven't figured out how to use this honeycomb macro for that easily yet.
Many thanks for demonstrating a sensible and efficient way to approach the use of this macro. Just a quick question. Why do you have things set to 7 significant figures?
Well 9 months later and I’m back again 🤣 Would it be too difficult to modify your macro so that the honeycomb hexagons are wider than they are high ? Sort of like the patterned panels and vents on cars nowadays. A rectangular hexagon I guess you could call it. Ratios seem to be 2:1 on the ones I’ve seen. Thanks for the great work on this by the way - I’ve been using it off and on for months 👍
I'm not sure if that could easily be done. If you make the honeycomb twice as tall as you really need, and then make a draft clone scaled 2:1 that might do what you need. The problem there is the wall thicknesses between holes will be different.
Great! Thanks, How do I apply the pattern directly on the face of a body or how can I used this part together with other parts in a body? That is the real question for me
First make sure the object is in the body. To do this make the body active before creating the Honeycomb. To attach to a face you need to make the previous feature visible so that face can be selected in the attachment dialog. Edit the map mode property of the Honeycomb object to bring up the editor.
@@mwganson I was able to do it, created a sketch with a rectangle and used the pad. Created the honeycomb and in MapMode choose one face, an eliptical honeycomb is attached. Ideally I would like to be able to create a shape like a rectangle and then to that rectangle with certain measurements add the honeycomb pattern, or to each side (face) of a cube, I guess. Imagine, to make a box but afford a bit of filament while 3d printing... I am designing this now via different honeycomb objects put together but its really not natural. There must be a way. If you would make a video with the posibilities of attaching honeycomb patterns to existing objects etc that would be great. Nevertheless many thanks!
@@ooorkanooo The Honeycomb can be used with a polar pattern or multitransform or mirror in part design. I haven't tried printing vertically. It might not work well without support, but the support then could be difficult to remove. An alternative could be to print the sides and assemble them later.
@@mwganson I have tried printing one "side" facing down and it prints perfectly. I am going to do an small test with a little piece on vertical and see if its possible, maybe if the hexagon is correctly placed so that one of the "pikes" points completely north then they can be printed. I dont know... nevertheless using the macro in actual premade shapes is imposible to me, I can only do them on an empty sketch and then modify accordingly, its a pity the macro cant be used easily against faces or sketches, that would make things super easier.
Thanks Mark - I have just started tinkering with your macro as I have some fan grilles that I want to print sometime. One question that I had after watching this though. You provide an x and y offset to adjust the honeycomb placement within the border, but would it also be possible to automatically center a cell in the x/y direction upon creation so that the entire honeycomb is automatically symmetrical in x and y ? Maybe this is impossible due to the algorithm used. I'm not a code guy so excuse me if I am asking for something akin to asking a physicist about traveling faster than the speed of light - lol. Anyway, thanks for the great macro and this video introducing it.
I'd have to look at the code. It might be possible to automatically center. No promises. I really don't think it matters so much if it's centered or not in most cases. In the video it was so obvious because of the enlarged hexagon radius used. But once you go back to smaller hexagons it becomes less obvious that it's not centered perfectly.
I installed your macro and am getting an error and nothing comes up. I am using version 0.20.2 This is the error. 14:43:53 Traceback (most recent call last): File "C:/Users/kar67/AppData/Roaming/FreeCAD/Macro/Honeycomb.FCMacro", line 621, in makeObject(FP) File "C:/Users/kar67/AppData/Roaming/FreeCAD/Macro/Honeycomb.FCMacro", line 502, in makeObject fp = doc.addObject("PartDesign::FeatureAdditivePython","Honeycomb") : 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'addObject' Can you help me to fix. Thanks
In case anybody else has this problem, you have to first create a new document. If you want to use it in part design you should also create a new body first and make sure it's active.
Thank You Mark, you are right about the finesse in witch bees build there honeycomb. More even, i am a beekeeper and if you look thru a real fresh honeycomb, build from wax off course, then you see a grid like this one you made with your macro, but on the other side of that honeycomb there is the same grid but moved exactly so much that the crossing point of 3 cells is in the middle of the radius of the grid on this side. The first time i have seen that i was really shocked. They can even build a bunch of cells bigger for the male bees to be born and still everything fits perfectly. A real work of art, and i am quit sure they have to work very hard with thousand of bees to make a comb from 100 x 100 mm for days. Sorry to the Neanderthals :=)
Brilliant. I needed a screen to keep bugs out of the AC exhaust on my trailer. This was about the simplest, most elegant solution I could've asked for. Thanks for a great explanation video as well. One comment - due to dealing with a CNC machine that is configured for inches (shared maker space, not everyone is metric 'aware') I have FreeCAD configured to deal with inches... Interestingly, if you input dimensions without explicitly adding "in" to the dimension, it infers/assumes metric intent. So in order to keep things simple, I use the formula editor for the macro fields and input "nn.n*25.4" and it works just fine.
I'm glad you found it useful. Some property types support units and others do not. I used the unitless, more generic, float type for these properties because then I could allow the user to use negative values where appropriate. For example, when setting the frame size a negative value means the frame border extends inward instead of outward. The unit aware property types don't accept negative values.
Another thing about FreeCAD is it's developed and maintained by people from all over the world. In most places the metric system is used exclusively. The key developers are in Germany. Other units are well-supported, such as inches, feet, etc., but there are still quirks here and there that crop up from time to time for non-metric units. This is particularly true for addons (macros and workbenches) developed by the community. Even though I'm American and I think in inches, gallons, feet, miles, I just keep FreeCAD in metric mode and don't even bother testing other modes. If I need to enter something in inches I'll use a formula as you have done.
Thank you Mark. This really helps for a project I working on.
Thank you. Well explained. Good job.
In some experimenting it seems like setting YAdjust to 1/2 the radius centers the grid inside the border fairly well.
Interesting. I'll give that a whirl - thanks !
Are we able to use this honeycomb mesh to boolean? I have a part with several faces that I'd like to cutout a honeycomb pattern on but haven't figured out how to use this honeycomb macro for that easily yet.
Yes, it can be used in booleans. Without seeing your file and understanding your existing workflow it's difficult to give any specific advice.
I spat out my tea at the neanderthals comment 🤣
Many thanks for demonstrating a sensible and efficient way to approach the use of this macro.
Just a quick question. Why do you have things set to 7 significant figures?
Well 9 months later and I’m back again 🤣
Would it be too difficult to modify your macro so that the honeycomb hexagons are wider than they are high ? Sort of like the patterned panels and vents on cars nowadays. A rectangular hexagon I guess you could call it. Ratios seem to be 2:1 on the ones I’ve seen. Thanks for the great work on this by the way - I’ve been using it off and on for months 👍
I'm not sure if that could easily be done. If you make the honeycomb twice as tall as you really need, and then make a draft clone scaled 2:1 that might do what you need. The problem there is the wall thicknesses between holes will be different.
Great! Thanks, How do I apply the pattern directly on the face of a body or how can I used this part together with other parts in a body? That is the real question for me
First make sure the object is in the body. To do this make the body active before creating the Honeycomb. To attach to a face you need to make the previous feature visible so that face can be selected in the attachment dialog. Edit the map mode property of the Honeycomb object to bring up the editor.
@@mwganson wow thanks, I will have to re-read that and try if I can do it.
@@mwganson I was able to do it, created a sketch with a rectangle and used the pad. Created the honeycomb and in MapMode choose one face, an eliptical honeycomb is attached. Ideally I would like to be able to create a shape like a rectangle and then to that rectangle with certain measurements add the honeycomb pattern, or to each side (face) of a cube, I guess. Imagine, to make a box but afford a bit of filament while 3d printing... I am designing this now via different honeycomb objects put together but its really not natural. There must be a way. If you would make a video with the posibilities of attaching honeycomb patterns to existing objects etc that would be great. Nevertheless many thanks!
@@ooorkanooo The Honeycomb can be used with a polar pattern or multitransform or mirror in part design. I haven't tried printing vertically. It might not work well without support, but the support then could be difficult to remove. An alternative could be to print the sides and assemble them later.
@@mwganson I have tried printing one "side" facing down and it prints perfectly. I am going to do an small test with a little piece on vertical and see if its possible, maybe if the hexagon is correctly placed so that one of the "pikes" points completely north then they can be printed. I dont know... nevertheless using the macro in actual premade shapes is imposible to me, I can only do them on an empty sketch and then modify accordingly, its a pity the macro cant be used easily against faces or sketches, that would make things super easier.
Thanks Mark - I have just started tinkering with your macro as I have some fan grilles that I want to print sometime. One question that I had after watching this though. You provide an x and y offset to adjust the honeycomb placement within the border, but would it also be possible to automatically center a cell in the x/y direction upon creation so that the entire honeycomb is automatically symmetrical in x and y ? Maybe this is impossible due to the algorithm used. I'm not a code guy so excuse me if I am asking for something akin to asking a physicist about traveling faster than the speed of light - lol. Anyway, thanks for the great macro and this video introducing it.
I'd have to look at the code. It might be possible to automatically center. No promises. I really don't think it matters so much if it's centered or not in most cases. In the video it was so obvious because of the enlarged hexagon radius used. But once you go back to smaller hexagons it becomes less obvious that it's not centered perfectly.
@@mwganson Thanks! Yes, for the smaller sizes it doesn't really matter, but even eyeballing it with the offsets would be fine. Keep up the great work.
I installed your macro and am getting an error and nothing comes up. I am using version 0.20.2 This is the error. 14:43:53 Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:/Users/kar67/AppData/Roaming/FreeCAD/Macro/Honeycomb.FCMacro", line 621, in
makeObject(FP)
File "C:/Users/kar67/AppData/Roaming/FreeCAD/Macro/Honeycomb.FCMacro", line 502, in makeObject
fp = doc.addObject("PartDesign::FeatureAdditivePython","Honeycomb")
: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'addObject' Can you help me to fix. Thanks
Never mind I found my stupid problem.
In case anybody else has this problem, you have to first create a new document. If you want to use it in part design you should also create a new body first and make sure it's active.
Neanderthals, LOL.