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
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
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: