Help with pattern on circular surface

Hi Group and McNeel!
I’m a bit lost here. I usually don’t deal with thin sheet metal and patterns, but need to have a circular pattern distributed over a circular shape - like the mesh on a speaker. The attached file shows the pattern and the shape. If only the surface had not been circular in shape, I could have used flowalongsrf, but I’m lost at how to approach this. Is it a job for panelling tools and if yes, how? The problem is of course the edges/bend, where what is now a 2D pattern deformes if I use project/pull.
TIA, Jakob
front mesh.3dm(3.8 MB)

Hi again. Just wanted to mention, that what I need is a not a precise solution, but I “just” need the circles to not deform too badly :smiley:
TIA, Jakob

Hi Jakob- I’m afraid I do not have any good solution for this so far… still thinking.

-Pascal

does it have to be done with geometry? will a texture work for you?
(mac rhino doesn’t have the Unwrap command hooked up yet and none of the other mapping commands will do the trick here but maybe it will work on official rhino?)

Hi Jakob,

I took a quick stab at it with the help of a script I wrote for a similar situation.
steps:
1: Manually created a draped rectangle.
2: Created a mesh from the base shape with extended cylinder(the script needs a mesh)
3: Ran the script with the option to use an existing surface.
4: Used flowalongsrf to flow the circles over the new surface
5: Deleted the circles that fell of the shape
6: Pulled the circles towards the surface
7: trimmed the holes (actually a split > delete all but large sheet)
(this trimmed result is not in the file for it’s filesize)

Maybe the script is not needed if you are able to create a close enough approximation of the draped
rectangle and pull the circles from there.

Here is a link with the file and script maybe it is of use…

HTH
-Willem

Hi @Willem :smile:
Thank you so very much! This is perfect for my need. I really need to learn how to script (and play guitar) soon. We usually just solve things like this with textures, but this time it’s needed as geomtry. I’m very grateful for your time and help!
BR, Jakob

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Hi @jeff_hammond
For once, we actually need the geomtrey, so no textures. But it looks as if @Willem came up with a great solution. Thanks for chiming in!
BR, Jakob