On Feb 24, 2:56 pm, Wildepad <noreplies> wrote:
> I have 126 glass panes which range in size from (all measurements in
> inches) 9x5 to 24x16. (It is not a uniform distribution -- almost 1/4
> of them are 16x12.)
With only 126 panes and a much smaller number of different
sizes, it will be easiest and best to fit them around manually.
You won't have many options for how to fit into a rectangular
screen.
> I want to mount them in frameworks to form decorative screens. The
> size of the panels can be from 14 to 28 inches wide and from 60 to 84
> inches tall, but there have to be several (2 to 6) panels of each
> finished size to assemble them into a screen.
> They cannot reasonably be cut [1], and a uniform pane size is not
> desirable anyway (if you're familiar with art deco room dividers,
> you'll know the look I'm after).
Fortunately, the only practical way of fitting the space will also
happen to give an art deco sort of look. Your basic strategy is
simple. You start with a rectangular space to fill. You can
either fit blocks to fill in a horizontal or vertical strip. This
fills in a rectangular strip and leaves a smaller empty rectangular
space to fill.
It's possible to fill in space with a more complex sort of
pattern if you're lucky, but this will not be a proper art
deco sort of look and it's too much trouble to figure out
the more complex patterns anyway. Also, the framework
will be simpler and more robust with the basic strategy,
due to the long straight borders which cross the entire
width or height.
> I could just mark out suitable dimensions on the floor, start grabbing
> panes, and try to figure out a pattern, but that would be long,
> frustrating, and tedious. (It would also be too much like work for my
> taste.)
> I could use a CAD program, making a rectangle to represent each piece,
> and try to fit them into a suitable pattern, but that would also take
> a long time, and I'm supposed to be cutting back on the hours spent at
> the computer.
If it's too tedious to work with the panes directly, then
make scale versions out of cardboard or foam board.
The cardboard should be thick enough so you can just
slide them around and fit them together on a flat table.
A CAD program would be even more tedious than
working with the panes directly. Definitely not worth
the effort. With a cardboard scale model, you can
quickly and intuitively slide pieces around, rotate them,
and even ****ft around entire rows/columns/groups
of pieces.
Isaac Kuo
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