CAD help - fit as many of peice 1 inside peice 2

[Rob V]

Hello all,

Question for all those CAD people out there. Im using TurboCad the free learning edition.

Im in the process of building an icecream stand for a client. They want a 47" diameter arch - 9' long for the top. My plan is to cut out 47" x 3" wide diameter ribs (arches) then support them in the middle then put bendy ply over it. Im figuring 6 arches for support - id like to be able to cut them all out on

1 sheet of ply. Does anyone know if there is a way in CAD to have it automagically layout a peice w/in another peice?

(If turbo cad cant do it - but someone has one that does - anyway you can email me a pic of the layout - that would be great!!! ( r_b_v at v_e_r_z_e_r_a doth c_o_m - remove the _'s)

Ie - I draw a 4'x8' box.- Part A I then draw the arch - 47" OD, 43" ID - Part B then have it fit as many of Part B inside part A?

Doing it by hand right now - I can fit 5.

2 on the top 2 on the bottom (layed out like the Macdonalds arches on top of each other) then 1 more in the middle facing like a U

Id like to somehow fit 6 on 1 sheet.

Any help would be great.

Thanks

-Rob

[Andy McArdle]

I dunno about CAD, but a 30sec sketch says to me you can get up to7 from the sheet.

Lay out the 1st one like a C, with the ends in the 2 corners of a short side. If your measurements are correct, you'll have 1/2" clearance from either long side. Draw exactly the same shape moved over about 1' to the left. And so on, until you have a line of C's nested into each other.

[Robert Bonomi]

This is no problem. layout like this:

+--------------+ |C C C C C C C | +--------------+

_eight_ ribs will fit on one sheet, that way. 10" offset between pieces.

For only 6 ribs, you can get away with a 6'2" x 48" panel.

Note: if you make the formers in 90 degree sections, instead of the full half-circle, you can get 34 half-sections out of that same sheet of ply. Using 3 'half-sections' per rib (3rd piece overlapping the joint in the first two) you can get 11 full ribs from that 4x8 sheet.