Hi!
I need the flowed squares to be as close to 5x5 mm as possible. I know 5x5 mm is impossible on bent surfaces but maybe there’s some tips and tricks that will help me get closer.
Thanks in advance.
Yeah, that is tough - the middle ones are likely to be pretty close and the edge ones not so much and the corners off the most. I don’t see a very reliable way to change the worst ones without also messing the ones that are close.
-Pascal
if you did rigid, and then used the flowed curves to project onto surface after that? would that be close enough for end pattern and sizes I wonder?
That might work - Pull the resulting curves though, not Project.
-Pascal
good point Pascal
why you get the big bucks
Thank you for the answers! The good thing with rigid is the size of the squares is near perfect, the bad thing is that the spacing between the squares gets all messed up.
Let’s say there is a tolerance on 0.5mm (4.5-5.5mm).
I know I can move the points around on the surface but that is way too time consuming (this is work related, multiple different surfaces every day). I want one single ‘flow along surface’ and minimal manual interaction with points. I’m not expecting, just hoping there is an easy answer.
Once again, thank you.
Why not use offset crv on surface, and offset the edges, the trim the unnecessary lines? In a way, create the pattern directly on the curved surface. Then use unroll selecting also the lines and you’ll get how the sheet plate will look with the curves shrunk due to unrolling.
I hope I get what the task is 
Just checking the small things: do you have the FlowAlongSurf option AutoAdjust set to No?
Hi! (3 years later). Sorry for the late reply. 
My problem is that I need the surface points to align in a way so that the squares are within the 5 ±1 tolerance. So the distortions on the surface itself are important. The squares is a control step that helps me show if there will be distortions on the objects that will be flowed up in a later step. There are 3 different objects that flows up later that are pieced together and need to have a specific width.
I have started to wonder if there is any way to do this in python.
If you have not tried the suggestion above to flow with Rigid=Yes then Pull the results onto the surface, that is what I would think is most likely to work. It occurs to me Paneling Tools might be able to help as well.
-Pascal
Grasshopper?
Hi! I’m on Rhino 5, I can’t find any Auto Adjust option.
Hi! Thank you for the reply. Rigid makes the pattern chaotic. I need the boxes to align with a mesh pattern that will be flowed after the boxes. 3 different objects flowed to the same surface.
The deformtions on the surface will deform all flowed objects equally.