Box with dividers

[Mark81]

Hi guys, how would be difficult to modify the BoxAuto plugin to allow the creation of inner dividers?
I'm thinking about x,y number of dividers, equally spaced that would be fit together and to the outer box with joints and.

[onekk]

Already done by me.

see

This version is not the final, as I'm working on it for some improvements, but the dividers are usable, even if I've not cut a box with them, I've checked all the proper dimensions and seems to be correct.

http://www.cambam.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=6250.msg61464#msg61464


The boxes are tested and I've cut many of them, mainly the "Open Type", ASAP i will release another versions, the sources are in the post, feel free to submit your question and suggestion for improvements.


The last "working version" not released yet can add a crenelated side male and female to a line to permit some tweaking of already drawn objects, and add a horizonthal separator at a given depth, but is a WIP.

Regards

Carlo D.

[Mark81]

I miss that thread! Great work!
I'm going to give it a try as soon as possible.

Because it's still under development I guess there isn't a description of each parameter yet, right?
Most of them are obvious, some others are not so clear for me but I'll play with them.
There are few minor tweaks on the UI I might kindly suggest (but I will write a post in the plugin's thread).

Coming back to my question, as far as I understand your plugin creates dividers only in one direction. I'm talking about a standard rectangular box. Instead I was looking for a way to create dividers also in both direction. Example:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71i2BOhvTQL._SX466_.jpg

I'm not interested in the cover... It's just an example of what I'm trying to do with the dividers.

[onekk]

Thanks,

It's doable, not to diffcult to implement, maybe in a near future i will try to implement them.

The problem in automation of such things is to guess a rule of thumbs for thing like how to intersects the dividers, and how to join them.

There are many techniques, a long divider in one side and many small dividers, or an intersecting grid of two long dividers (as an example of only one crossed dividers).

I'm working on a different porject now, but, I'm planning to return on developing  the BoxAuto plugin in the near future, stay tuned.

For now you could take a box auto generated and modify the divider and copy and paste and then place and trim the reatining pocket.

This is what I do when I need a more complex work on the auto generated box.

Regards

Carlo D.

[Mark81]

Ciao Carlo,
no problem, thanks. I already do this manually, but of course the downside is the time needed to re-do everything when you change a bit your design 

Anyway, am I doing something wrong? Because no matter the number of dividers I set the slots on the bottom part is always 4. Instead the slots on the side parts reflect the actual parameter. See this screenshot:

[onekk]

I will check asap the code, for now I've tested the working version, and found some new bugs in the box with dividers creation.

Sadly the process of changing the code is not plain, I've not a wokring Windows developing machine, and I'm developing on Linux, so when done I could pass you the sources if you are able to compile them on your machine, and maybe you could post the "windows version" as a dll on the thread.

REgards

Carlo D.

[Mark81]

so when done I could pass you the sources if you are able to compile them on your machine, and maybe you could post the "windows version" as a dll on the thread.

Yes, I think I will be able to do this.
Thanks a lot!

[onekk]

EDIT: see the zip

I'm checking the code, and found some errors, but the code is slightly modified from the previous versione, this versions has the build in capabilities to draw multiple boxes (naming them accordingly) so some work has to be done for a proper working solution, now I'm working on resolving the problem of the bottom part slots, as soon I will find the "culprit" I will post here the source code, (Hoping to be fast to find out the code).

Regards

Carlo D.

EDIT: The zip is compiling on Linux, It seem to be compatible vith visual studio

[EddyCurrent]

Plugin attached, works on CamBam 0.9.8 and 1.0

[onekk]

Many Thanks Eddy, I owe you at least a beer, maybe when I came to england.

Regards

Carlo D.

[Mark81]

Thank you both!
I'm trying the updated version.

[onekk]

Some work in progress:

The dividers slots are calculated usign the Material thickenss + the assembly clearance.

The image has some pointlist at the midpoint of the dividers, they are my visual "DEBUG" to use them as a check for the mating slots, superimposing the created entities.

The code is here and generally i inactive them once the correct code is done, usually i make them "react" to a boolean variable in the method call, but if thay are useful, i could leave them in the "Costruction" Layer as a reference.

The slot are housed in the side wall of the box and in the bottom by an amount of 0.33 * Material thickness.

The number of dividers be specified for the "Box.Height" side and for the "Box.Width" side allowing a 0 value for each to specify only one divider separation.

some refinement are planned in a short term:

1) Adding a NUD (Numeric Up Down field in .NET forms jargon) to select the depth of the slots in the walls ( a range of  -0.33 to 0.50 of material thickness allows for some tweaking, like if you select a negative value the width of the divider is smaller than the internal dimension allowing to make "removable dividers" and not slots on the walls and the bottom).

2) Allowing a selection of the heght of the divider (maybe a fraction 0.5 - 1.0  of the Box.Depth)

Let me know if it seems correct, or if I'm missing something important.

Regards

Carlo D.

[Mark81]

Well done! Can't wait to try it, thanks a lot for your effort!

[Mark81]

Ciao Carlo! Any news about your plugin? If you need some help to test it, I'm glad to contribute!

[onekk]

Yes, I'm working on it, for now I've a compiled version for Linux (only).

I have to implement a working windows machine (It's a tedious work) and for now I'm not be able to compile it on windows (win 7 Pro).

The divider section seem to work (I've tested only one divider, but the routine that do the calculations is working right).

The fingers seems to be correct, i have cut (but not glued yet) a box of 30cm W x 40 cm H with a depth of 18cm and all the fingers are correctly matching.

The main concern remain the windows machine, but I hope to be able to be ready for the second half of july, as I'm working on other project and busy with some family matters.

Regards

Carlo D.