Herringbone Tiler

Tile complex floor layouts using a floor plan imported as a .dae file from many of the popular drawing packages. Uses the concept of an 'offcuts bin', when a tile needs cutting the bin is searched to see if a suitable offcut can be found. This reduces wastage considerably.

Usage

Extract a floor plan from a DAE file

herringbone-tiler plan <dae_file> [--display]

• dae_file - Path to a SketchUp DAE export file
• --display - Generate a PNG preview of the extracted plan

Outputs a JSON file with edge coordinates in millimeters.

Example:

herringbone-tiler plan plans/room-plan.dae --display

Generate a herringbone tile pattern

herringbone-tiler tile <plan_file> --x <apex_x> --y <apex_y> [options]

Required:

• plan_file - Path to the JSON plan file
• --x - X coordinate for pattern apex alignment (mm)
• --y - Y coordinate for pattern apex alignment (mm)

Options:

• --width - Tile width in mm (default: 115)
• --length - Tile length in mm (default: 750)
• --direction - Pattern orientation: N, S, E, W (default: N)
• --optimize - Search for optimal origin to minimize wastage
• --display / --no-display - Show visualization (default: display)
• --no-save - Don't save visualization to file

Example:

herringbone-tiler tile --width 150 --length 750 --x 5505 --y 14000 --direction N plans/room-plan.json

Optimization

The --optimize flag searches for the best pattern origin to minimize tile wastage:

herringbone-tiler tile --x 0 --y 0 --optimize plans/room-plan.json

This tests origin offsets in 50mm increments across one pattern period and reports:

• Best offset (x, y in mm)
• Best apex position
• Wastage percentage

Example output:

==================================================
OPTIMIZATION RESULTS
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Best offset:    x = 450mm, y = 0mm
Best apex:      x = 450mm, y = 0mm
Wastage:        10.72%
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