Objective:

Learn how to variably modify the properties of geometry using distance data and the Ramp block.

Applies to:

• nTopology
• Ramps

Procedure:

1. Create a volume to fill with a Voronoi Lattice. 

• • Add a Box block to define the Design Space.

2. Fill the Design Space with Random Points. 

• • Add a Random Points in Body block to fill the volume with points
    • Set the Seed to 1 and the Point Spacing to 1mm. 
      • These points won't quite be the center points of each Voronoi Cell, but they ultimately spawn the 3-Dimensional Voronoi Cells. These points are on average, consistently placed. 

3. Fill the Design Space with a beam-based Voronoi Lattice. 

• • Add a Voronoi Volume Lattice block.
  • Insert the Random Points in Body from Step 2 into the Seed Points input
  • Leave the optional mesh input empty

4. Set up the Ramp

• • Add a Ramp block
    • Add a Plane from Normal block to use as the Scalar Field (this is where the distances in the In min and In max start from)
      • Set the Origin for the Plane to (0, 0, -5) 
    • Set the In Min: 0 mm and In Max: 10 mm. This is the distance from the Scalar Field 
    • Set the Out Min: 0.1 mm and the Out Max: 1.0 mm. These values represent the spacing we want to happen at the In Min and In Max values. In this example, all points at the base of the Plane (0mm) or less will have a point spacing of 0.1 mm. All points that are 10 mm or greater will have a point spacing of 1.0 mm. 
  • Don't forget to include units. If you do, an error will occur. Your Ramp block should look like the image below.

5. Ramp the point spacing.

• • Insert the Ramp block into the Point Spacing input of the Random Points in Body block. This varies the spacing for the points

6. Create a variable density Voronoi Lattice.

• Insert the Random Points in Body block into the Seed Points input of the Voronoi Volume Lattice block. 

And that’s it! You’ve successfully modified a Voronoi lattice with the Ramp block. 

Are you still having issues? Contact the support team, and we’ll be happy to help!

Download the Example file:

• Example File

More on this topic:

• How to control surface Mesh Spacing using Ramps
• How do I use the Ramp block?
• How can I vary the cell size of a Voronoi surface lattice?