method for checkering gun stock

[tallard]

Can anyone think of a good method for adding checkering to a gun stock? For anyone who is not familiar with this checkering is an array of small diamond points covering an area of a complex surface. What I have started with is adding section curves in 2 directions to define the grid. The surface I sectioned is offset from the gun stock by the depth of the diamonds. I was hoping to extrude the entire group of section curves at a draft angle of 45 degrees and subtract from the gun stock but it looks like each one will have to be done individually and there are hundreds of them.

 

[kevklem]

Here's an incomplete suggestion which may lead to something.... It is based on coming at the gun stock from one vector, not normal to the surface. I guess I am thinking that the checkered area is on the side and not over the top or bottom of the stock.

Create a component file which has 2 bodies in it, each with its own ref set. One is a spherical nosed pin and the other is a diamond point rectangle. Set them up overlaying each other except the diamond point would be proud of the spherical nosed by the depth into the stock. In the parent, have the spherical refset on and mate the spherical face of the pin to the complex surface using Tangent. Change refsets to the diamond point, link the body to the parent and subtract. This is kind of where it falls apart. Is it possible to then use component arrays to build a whole block, if you will, of these while staying tangent to the surface? Don't know.

Also maybe try Vary Constraints while checking Stop on Collision to locate the pins.

If I get some time I will fool with it.

Good Luck,

Kevin

 

[tallard]

Thanks Kevin,

Thats an interesting approach. I do lots of these so I appreciate your efforts. I got through this one by sectioning 2 surfaces - one offset from the other by the depth of the diamond. Each surface had to be sectioned in 2 directions to represent the diamond pattern and the lower surface was sectioned at a distance that was offset from the upper pattern by 1/2 the width of the diamond. Once all the curves were layed out I built ruled surfaces between all of the curve sets (hundreds of them) I then sewed 2 different surface sets for each direction defining the triangle and trimmed the extruded surface area with the surface body. It was a slow, painfull operation. It doesn't look like you can attach files in this forum or I'd submit the file I ended up with as an example of the hard way of doing it. Thanks again for your post. I'll look into your approach.

t.