Custom Unit Cells

If none of the provided unit cells yield the lattice you hope for, you can use a Custom Unit Cell instead. When used in a Periodic Lattice, this block generates a user-defined lattice. This support article shows different options for building Custom Unit Cells.

To create a Custom Unit Cell, you define an Implicit Body or a Graph to use as the repeated entity and define the body’s Domain. The Unit Cell Domain defines the boundary of the Unit Cell and its spatial position within that boundary.

Domain

Let’s take a closer look at the Unit Cell Domain. One method for defining the domain is using the bounding box chip, a property of the Implicit Body. This bounding box property inherently matches the boundary of the geometry and will create an exact fit for the Custom Unit Cell.

Another method is to define the Domain separately using the Bounding Box block, as shown below. Note the position of the geometry within a separately created bounding box will affect the resulting lattice. For example, a small floating sphere centered inside a much larger domain will generate a lattice of spaced, floating spheres.