13. A tiled floor

This exercise is a perfect illustration of the use of Boolean operations between 2D curves. Boolean operation can come in handy for making wall or floor tile, and many other things too!

Create geometric shapes

Þ Step 1: Draw the tile

q Tool: Drawing Tool, Rectangle q Do it: Draw a 15x15cm square. q See the detailed explanations in the chapter: User Manual/Tools/Construction/Drawing/Rectangle

Þ Step 2: Design a pattern

q Tool: Drawing Tool, Circle q Do it: Inside the square, you can draw geometric patterns which can be tangent or secant with the corners or the sides of the square. In this example, draw a circle with its center on the top left corner of the square. q See the detailed explanations in the chapter: User Manual/Tools/Construction/Drawing/Circle

Þ Step 3: Pattern repetition

q Tool: Duplicate q Open the model file: C01 q Do it: The circle is the current object. Multiple Copy it to each corner of the square. q See the detailed explanations in the chapter: User Manual/Tools/Assembly/Duplicate

Þ Step 4: Integrate the pattern to the tile (part 1)

q Tool: Boolean q Open the model file: C02 q Do it: Make a Boolean operation between the square and the group of circles: 1. Be sure the square is the current object. 2. Select the Boolean tools and click on the group of circles. 3. Use the +/- keys to display the different combinations. Validate the correct one (cross shape) and save it (cross) WARNING!: To get the two sets of curves you must perform the Boolean operation twice from the C02 file and save a new file each time with a different name. q See the detailed explanations in the chapter: User Manual/Tools/Modeling/Cut/Boolean

Þ Step 5: Integrate the pattern to the tile (part 2)

q Tool: Boolean q Open the model file: C02 q Do it: 1. Do the same operation as above, but this time validate the four quarter-circle shapes. 2. Merge with the file saved previously (cross). q See the detailed explanations in the chapter: User Manual/Tools/Modeling/Cut/Boolean

Þ Step 6: Tile surface generation

q Tool: Surface Extract q Open the model file: C03 q Do it: Select a curve (cross) or a group of curves, take the Surface Extract tool, and validate (Enter). The surface is automatically generated. q See the detailed explanations in the chapter: User Manual/Tools/Construction/Facet Extraction

Þ Step 7: Color

q Tool: Material editor q Open the model file: C04 C05 q Do it: You can apply a color or a texture on each part of the tile pattern q See the detailed explanations in the chapter: User Manual/Tools/Control Panel/Editing materials

Þ Step 8: The tile is finished

q Tool: Group q Open the model file: C04 C05 q Do it: Group together to make a tile. q See the detailed explanations in the chapter: User Manual/Tools/Control Panel/Group, Ungroup

Generating the tile floor

Þ Step 1: Draw a construction grid

q Tool: Grid q Open the model file: C06 q Do it: 1. Face view, then top view (key 2, then 5). 2. Draw a 6x6 cell grid (15x15 cm per cell). q See the detailed explanations in the chapter: User Manual/Tools/Construction/3D Primitives/Grid

Þ Step 2: Repeat the tile on the grid

q Tool: Duplicate q Open the model file: C06a Now, Multiple Copy the tile on the grid. You can try the same operations with other patterns: see C08 to C13. q See the detailed explanations in the chapter: User Manual/Tools/Assembly/Duplicate/Multiple copies along a path or on the facets of an object