Draft PointArray

Description
The tool places copies of a selected shape along various selected points.

The PointArray tool can be used on any object that has a Part TopoShape, meaning 2D shapes created with the Draft Workbench, but also 3D solids created with the Part, PartDesign, or the Arch Workbenches.


 * To create orthogonal, polar or circular arrays, use the corresponding, , or tools.
 * To position copies along a path use.
 * To create copies and manually place them use or.
 * To create exact copies and manually place or scale them, use or.



Usage

 * 1) Select the object that you wish to distribute.
 * 2) Select a point compound.
 * 3) Press the  button.

Each element in the array is an exact clone of the original object, but the entire array is considered a single unit in terms of properties and appearance.

Point compound
The point compound object can be created in different ways.
 * Create various or, and then press  to create the compound.
 * Repeat the previous method but instead of a compound use to create a "Block".
 * Create a, and inside add various.

In essence, the object to be used as the compound must have one of three properties,, , or , and inside that compound, there must be at least one point with , , and properties.

the array will first try to position the copies by the of the point, this applies to  and. In the case of sketcher, the position will be taken from its internal X, Y, and Z attributes.

for its  always follows the value of, , , so modifying these values is enough to produce the desired displacement. However, for, , , represent an additional displacement to ; if  remains at the origin , all copies in the array will be created at the origin. Therefore, when using, you should always remember to modify the property to get the desired position of the copies.

Options
There are no options for this tool. Either it works with the selected objects or not.

Properties
A PointArray is derived from a Part Feature ( class), therefore it shares all the latter's properties. In addition to the properties described in Part Feature, the PointArray has the following properties in the property editor.


 * : the object to duplicate; it must have a Part TopoShape.
 * : (read-only) specifies the number of copies in the array. This property is read-only because the number of copies is determined by the number of points inside of.
 * : specifies an additional placement, translation and rotation, that will be applied to each copy in the array. Each copy normally appears with the same rotation as the object; with this property it is possible to provide additional rotation, or counter the original rotation, and make small adjustments to the position of the copies.
 * : specifies a compound object with points that indicate where the copies of the object will appear. The compound object needs to have one of, , or  properties, and contain at least one element with , , and  attributes.

Scripting
Draft API and FreeCAD Scripting Basics.

The PointArray tool can be used in macros and from the Python console by using the following function:

Older call

New call


 * Creates a object from the, by placing the copies in the points contained within.
 * should have one of, , or attributes containing points.
 * Instead of a reference to an object, and  can also be  (strings) of objects existing in the current document.
 * can be a full, or just an or.

Example: