Curve Driven Component Pattern

You can pattern components using 2D or 3D sketches that contain a continuous set of tangential lines.

To create a curve driven pattern of components:

  1. Click Linear Component Pattern > Curve Driven Component Pattern (Assembly toolbar) or Insert > Component Pattern > Curve Pattern.
  2. In the PropertyManager, under Direction 1:
    1. Select a curve, edge, sketch entity, or select a sketch from the FeatureManager to use as the path for the pattern.
    2. Optional: Click Reverse Direction to change the direction of the pattern.
    3. Enter a value for Number of Instances . This is the total number of instances including the seed components.
    4. Click Equal Spacing to set equal spacing between each pattern instance. The separation between instances depends on the curve selected for Pattern Direction and on the Curve method.
    5. Enter a value for Spacing . The distance between the curve and the Features to Pattern is measured normal to the curve.
    6. Under Reference Point, select one of the following:
      • Bounding box center
      • Component origin
      • Selected point
    7. Curve method defines the direction of the pattern by transforming how you use the curve selected for Pattern Direction. Under Curve method, select one of the following options:
      • Transform curve. The delta X and delta Y distances from the origin of the selected curve to the seed feature are maintained for each instance.
      • Offset curve. Offsets each instance from the seed feature.
    8. Under Alignment method, select one of the following options:
      • Tangent to curve. Aligns each instance tangent to the curve selected for Pattern Direction.
      • Align to seed. Aligns each instance to match the original alignment of the seed feature.
    9. For Face normal, select the face on which the 3D curve lies to create the curve driven pattern.
  3. Repeat for Direction 2 for a bidirectional pattern.
    Select Pattern seed only to pattern the seed component only in the second direction. When cleared, SOLIDWORKS patterns all the instances generated by Direction 1 and the seed component in the second direction.
  4. Click in Components to Pattern , then select the seed components.
  5. To skip instances, click in Instances to Skip .
  6. To restore instances, select the instance in Instances to Skip and press Delete.
  7. Optional: To block changes to the configuration of patterned instances for all configurations, select Synchronize configuration of patterned components to seed.
  8. Click .
    The new components appear under Mates in the FeatureManager design tree.

    By default, all instances use the same configuration as the seed components. To change the configuration, edit the component properties of an instance.