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 other workbenches, for example, Part, PartDesign, or Arch.


 * To create orthogonal, polar or circular arrays, use the corresponding, , or tools.
 * To position App Link copies at specified points use.
 * To position copies along a path use or.
 * 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.

in the case of and  the array will try to position the copies using the  of the point. In the case of a, the position will be taken from its internal , , and attributes.

for its  always follows the values of, , , so modifying these values is enough to produce the desired displacement. However, for, the net displacement is given by the sum of with the vector with components , , and.

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

Properties
See also: Property editor.

A Draft PointArray object is derived from a Part Feature object and inherits all its properties (with the exception of some View properties that are not inherited by Link arrays). The following properties are additional unless otherwise stated:

Data
The properties in this group are only available for Link arrays. See Std LinkMake for more information.




 * : specifies the object to duplicate in the array.
 * : (read-only) specifies the number of elements in the array. This number is determined by the number of points in the.
 * : specifies whether to expand the array in the Tree view to enable the selection of its individual elements. Only available for Link arrays.
 * : : specifies an additional placement, translation and rotation, for each element in the array.
 * : specifies the compound object whose points are used to position the elements in the array. The object must to have a, or  property, and contain at least one element with , , and  properties.

View
The properties in this group, with the exception of the inherited property, are only available for Link arrays. See Std LinkMake for more information.


 * : this is an inherited property that appears in the Selection group for other arrays
 * : this is an inherited property that appears in the Selection group for other arrays
 * : this is an inherited property that appears in the Selection group for other arrays
 * : this is an inherited property that appears in the Selection group for other arrays
 * : this is an inherited property that appears in the Selection group for other arrays

The properties in this group, with the exception of the inherited property, are only available for Link arrays. See Std LinkMake for more information.


 * : this is an inherited property.
 * : this is an inherited property.
 * : this is an inherited property.
 * : this is an inherited property.
 * : this is an inherited property.

The properties in this group are inherited properties. See Part Feature for more information.


 * : this property is not inherited by Link arrays.
 * : for Link arrays it can be or . For other arrays it can be:, ,  or


 * : not used.
 * : not used.

The properties in this group are not inherited by Link arrays.

Scripting
See also: Autogenerated API documentation and FreeCAD Scripting Basics.

To create a point array use the method  of the Draft module. This method replaces the deprecated method.


 * is the object to be arrayed. It can also be the (string) of an object in the current document.
 * is the object containing the points. It can also be the (string) of an object in the current document. It should have a, , or  property containing points.
 * is an, an or an  that displaces each element.
 * If is  the created elements are App Links instead of regular copies.

Example: