Voronoi Volume Lattice

In addition to periodic lattices, you can create non-periodic (stochastic) lattices in nTop.

The Voronoi Volume Lattice block creates a lattice from the Voronoi diagram of a list of points within a volume.  

You can include a surface mesh as an optional Boundary input, which will confine the lattice created inside the mesh and close the beams.

You can also use the Trim Lattice or the Boolean Intersect blocks to remove the lattice extending outside the part to keep open beams at the edges.

Note: The Trim Lattice option will maintain lattice properties in the output’s details, while the Boolean Intersect option will output an implicit body with no lattice properties.

Volume Voronoi Properties

Along with the standard properties within a lattice, the Voronoi Volume Lattice has two additional properties: cell diameters and voronoi cells. 

The cell diameters property provides the porosity of each cell produced in the Voronoi lattice. While the Point spacing input in the Random Points in a Body controls the porosity, there is a range across the lattice due to how the Voronoi lattice is produced, as shown below.

The voronoi cells property is a list of the Voronoi cells produced in the lattice as shown below.

Example Application

Below is an example Custom Block that uses the Voronoi lattice to add randomness to any lattice structure. See the example below with a simple cubic graph lattice. You can download this block in the Follow Along: Non-Periodic Lattices text lesson in this section.