Working with Lattice Commander

Basic steps to begin and finish working with this tool

Jump to:

• To activate Lattice Commander
• To transfer parts into Lattice Commander
• To transfer bodies out of Lattice Commander
• To generate a part from a component
• To export and import components

To activate Lattice Commander

From the menu, choose Modify >  Lattice Commander. This creates a new branch in the project tree called Lattice Commander, if it isn't there already. If it does exist, Netfabb will simply switch to it. If you have a part selected while using this menu option, this part is automatically loaded into a mesh body of a new component.

Tip: You can also select the Lattices entry in the project tree and then click Lattice Commander in the context view.

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To transfer parts into Lattice Commander

When you add a part into Lattice Commander, it is always added into a component, an independent working set of bodies. This may be a new component that Netfabb automatically creates, or an existing component.

Note: When a part consists of multiple shells, and the part is introduced in Lattice Commander, all shells are added into the same body. This can complicate editing or generating lattices and skins. In particular, intersecting or even self-intersecting shells can produce unexpected results. In such cases you may want to split the part's shells into individual parts, or repair any intersections and self-intersections, before proceeding with working in Lattice Commander.

To create an empty component

1. In the project tree, click  Lattice Commander to select it.
2. Then, from the main menu, choose Component >  Add Component.

To add to a new component

1. In the project tree, click and drag the part from  Parts or a machine workspace.
2. Drop it onto the  Lattice Commander entry.

To add to an existing component

1. In the project tree, click and drag the part from  Parts or a machine workspace.
2. Drop it onto the entry of a component.

The tips of the blue line indicate how Helix is added into Lattice Commander. Left: Into a new component. Right: Into the existing component named Box.

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To transfer bodies out of Lattice Commander

1. You can drag any mesh body from  Lattice Commander directly to a regular platform.
   Note: You cannot lattices or skins this way. To create mesh information from skins and lattices, you must go through Generate Component. Also, it is not possible to move mesh bodies directly to Slices or machine workspaces. Move them to the default platform named  Parts first.
2. You can also use a lattice to generate bar supports without needing to generate a mesh from the lattice first.
   • Click and drag the lattice body from the  Lattice Commander section to the Generate Support section of the part to be supported with the generated lattice.

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To generate a part from a component

You can export an entire component into a part. Using the roles you can set for each of the bodies in a component, Netfabb assembles them into the result. The benefit of this method is that you do not need to generate the mesh information manually. The entire mesh generation and assembly is handled automatically, producing only the final part and putting it onto the platform that was selected last before clicking Generate Component.

1. In the project tree, select the component.
2. Adjust the role of each body as necessary by clicking on the role icon, cycling through Solid, Trim, Void, and Ignore.
3. Select the mesh generation method:
   • Generate part mesh creates regular-shaped triangles of uniform size. Forms neater junctions and follows rounded surfaces best, but creates small triangles even on completely flat areas, resulting in rather high triangle counts.
   • Generate part mesh (legacy) uses an older meshing algorithm. It generates larger triangles and observes hard edges best, but also creates rather large beam junctions.
   • Generate part for FEA generates the volumetric, linear tetrahedral mesh and directly writes the NAS file suitable for finite-element analysis. Clicking this will ask you for the desired file name of the NAS file to write.
4. In the main menu, click Generate.

Tip: You can skip steps 1-3 if you have set the roles already, by clicking the role icons in the project tree, for example.

A component being previewed, with all the available roles in use. Trim volumes are shown in green, void volumes in red. Solid bodies appear in pale pink, ignored ones are hidden.

The result of generating a part from the example above.

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To export and import components

You can save and load components in the form of 3MF files. This stores meshes, lattices, and skins. However, visibility and roles are not stored.

Import 3MF Component

1. In the project tree, click on any node of  Lattice Commander.
2. In the main menu, click Import component.
3. In the Open File dialog, navigate to the 3MF file to load, select it, and click Open.

Export 3MF Component

1. In the project tree, select any body of the component to export, or select the component itself.
2. In the main menu, click Export component.
3. In the Save File as dialog, navigate to the location where to save the 3MF file, then click Save.

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