Sprue Tree

Sprue Tree

The Sprue Tree command builds the classic radial casting tree: a tapered central trunk standing on a base, with several floors of pieces distributed around it in a circle, each one joined to the trunk by its own connector.

It is the tree you use when the plate is full of the same design and you want the flask packed as tightly as the pieces allow.

ArtisanSprueTree

Building the tree

1. Select the mesh you want to cast. Build from copies takes the copies you already laid out instead of replicating one model.
2. Set how the pieces are distributed — Floors and Pieces per Floor — and the tree writes itself around them.
3. Adjust the trunk and connectors until nothing collides, then Accept to add the tree to the document.

Distribution

• Floors — how many levels of pieces the tree carries.
• Pieces per Floor — how many go around each level.
• Vertical Separation — distance between floors. 0 spreads them evenly along the trunk height; if the floors need more room than the trunk has, the trunk grows to cover them and the panel says so.
• Floor Stagger — degrees each floor is rotated against the one below, so pieces do not sit directly on top of each other.
• Height Stagger — raises alternate arms of the same floor, as a fraction of the floor spacing: 0 keeps the floor level, 1 lifts the alternate arm halfway to the next floor. It is how you fit more pieces per turn without them touching.
• Min Distance — the clearance the tree keeps between neighbouring pieces.

Trunk and base

• Height — trunk height, driven by the flask you cast in.
• Bottom Diameter / Top Diameter — the trunk taper, wider at the bottom where all the metal passes.
• Base Diameter / Base Height — the cone that sits on the plate.
• Branch Diameter — thickness of the connectors reaching the pieces.

Connectors

Each piece has its own connector, adjusted from the model section:

• Length — how far the piece sits from the trunk.
• Angle — the connector’s inclination.
• Rotation — how the piece is turned on the connector’s axis.
• Inside — how far the connector sinks into the piece.
• Max Length — the limit used when the tree solves the layout on its own.