Hi Andy, not to take anything away from Max, but FYI the pattern you show there can be done with the built in Transform > Array > Circular command pretty easily. You'd just do it in 3 passes increasing the "Item count" option on each pass.

It looks like this:

Pass 1 - Item count = 9:



Pass 2 - Item count = 14:



Pass 3 - Item count = 19



- Michael

It was a quick example. If I really needed it I would add some twist and progressively reduce the size of the outer ones slightly. The sliders allows me to play around with the pattern until I get something pleasing to the eye. Quick and easy. What you described is what I did in Alibre Design anyway so not worth the trouble of exporting STP, importing STP and creating it to finish the part.