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Surface of a Sphere

Surface of a Sphere

Surface of a Sphere

(OP)
I have an interesting modeling question. I need to create a sphere out of a bunch of circular plates. Essentially I have to stick a bunch of these plates of various diameters to the surface of a sphere then remove the spherical form leaving just the plates. Anyone have any suggestions on how to accomplish this?

Dan

www.eltronresearch.com
Dan's Blog

RE: Surface of a Sphere

Quote:

plates of various diameters
This part of the problem description is confusing as a sphere has only one diameter.
Do you have any pictures, *.sld* or urls?

RE: Surface of a Sphere

(OP)
Yes, a sphere has only one diameter. The plates that I need to attach to the surface of the sphere are differing sizes. Imagine sticking a bunch of CD's to the outside of a beach ball then deflating the beach ball. That's kind of what I'm going for, but the CD's are various diameters. As an update I think I may have an idea how to do it, but I don't think I am going to have time to test it today. I'll keep you posted.

Dan

www.eltronresearch.com
Dan's Blog

RE: Surface of a Sphere

If you made your plates offset from their origin by the radius of the sphere, then you could mate all of their origins to the assembly's origin. The plates would all then be tangent to the surface of the sphere, without creating the sphere.

As far as mating the plates to each other, I can see several ways of going about it, but I do not know what you are trying to accomplish. If you are trying to have the largest size all touch and then fill in the gaps with smaller ones, I would start with a 20 sided die shape and put the largest on the points.

Eric

RE: Surface of a Sphere

Try researching geodesic dome. Then substitute your circular plate for the hexagon or pentagon shapes.
B.E.

You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.

RE: Surface of a Sphere

(OP)
Yeah, it should be a fun one to make. Unfortunately, I can't open the '14 files. If I update to '13 sp5 I should be able to, right?

Dan

www.eltronresearch.com
Dan's Blog

RE: Surface of a Sphere

Yes but you won't be able to do anything with it ... or even see the features.

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