Objective:
Learn how to create a custom lattice unit cell.
Procedure:
To create a Custom Unit Cell, you insert a Body or Graph and define the domain with a Bounding Box. The Unit Cell Domain defines the boundary of the Unit Cell and its spatial information within that boundary.
1. Unit Cell Domain
Let's take a closer look at the Unit Cell Domain before looking at the Body or Graph. One method for defining the domain is to use the Bounding Box Chip which is a Property of the Implicit Body. This Bounding Box already matches the boundary of the Implicit and will create an exact fit for the Unit Cell.
Another method is to define the Bounding Box separately by using the Bounding Box block. In the example below, the implicit is floating in the Unit Cell and is cut off by the Bounding Box. The space below it will be a part of the Unit Cell.
2. Unit Cell Body
The Body input can be any Implicit Body or Lattice Type. It can be created in nTop using the primitive implicit shapes, or imported and then converted into an Implicit Body. When creating your custom unit cell, it is ideal to have it be of equal size in X, Y, and Z directions to be easily scalable.
3. Unit Cell Graph
The Graph input is accessible by switching the overload for the block. There are several different blocks available for generating a graph including: Graph from Line Segments, Import Lattice Graph, and Graph from Mesh Faces (Beta). This provides the flexibility to either create the graph in nTop or to import one. When creating your custom unit cell, it is ideal to have it be of equal size in x,y, and z directions to be easily scalable.
Are you still having issues? Contact the support team, and we’ll be happy to help!
Download the Example file:
- Custom Honeycomb Unit Cell: Download Here
- Custom Primitive Implicit Unit Cell: Download Here
- Custom Voronoi Lattice Unit Cell: Download Here
- Custom Graph Unit Cell: Download Here
Comments
Hi,
as a result, i receive a "lattice body". Is there a way to export this type? I would like to print the created structure. So far i tried to use the "export lattice" - command. I was able to create a .3mf file, but this file was empty. I get the same result, when I try to save it to a .ltcx file, just a blank file with no nodes or beams.
Hey Lukas, you want to open up the Properties of the Periodic Lattice Body block and extract either the Lattice type or the Implicit body. You can see this process at the bottom of this article: https://support.ntopology.com/hc/en-us/articles/360050828294
Hi Cayleigh,
thanks for the quick response. Now its working as i hoped for :)
Hi I've followed the steps and it worked however it crashed so when I attempt this again I no longer get to change the relative thickness in the bounding box anymore. Have I disabled it accidentally?
Hi Jacqueline, with the updates in nTopology 3.0, the relative thickness values have been removed from Custom Implicit Unit cells.
Hi,
How I can homogenize the custom unit cell?
Thanks in advanced!
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