I have never used the unfold command before. It seemed simple enough, draw the part, extrude, turn into sheet metal, set defaults and unfold to make a flat pattern. It will not let me unfold. The dialog box comes up, but will not allow me to pick a flat surface or bends....
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I'm having an issue with some similar pieces of sheet metal. They are created with a face, then I place a fold, then I need to unfold/refold it so I can place holes while it's unfolded and have them remain as true holes.
2 of the 3 parts do this just fine, but one particular will unfold normally, but the refold, even though it succeeds, does not actually do any refolding, I'm just left with the flattened part.
Every sketch is fully constrained. I've experimented with changing the sheet metal rules.
I have a conical shaped part that Inventor 2012 will allow me to unfold, but will not refold accurately. When the refold is complete it should roll back up and be .01 degrees from completely round. But instead it leaves about 60deg of opening. I need to cut out 120+ slots out of the face of the metal, but once I do this while in the unfolded state, it will not refold at all...not that it owuld matter if it, seeing as though it refold inaccurately.
View 4 Replies View RelatedFor some reason I cannot unfold sheet metal product on attached file. Where have I made a mistake? I used extruding, also sheet metal thickness from rule has been set to 2mm. Rest are default values.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI'm looking to unfold the attached sheet metal elbow and am unable to do so. After modeling the part I was also unable to rip an opening to split the part. I opted to cut an opening with a profile, but I am still unable to unfold the part. The probelm is likely obvious and I believe it is because I used part splits to create the different sections.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI created a part that spans between two other pieces. The original part model does not have a twist in the "flat" surfaces, so it unfolds just fine, but it also does not represent the way the actual part fits, so it is difficult to determine if any other parts are fitting correctly up to it.
I had a problem getting a part to unfold before, and I was shown a method of creating a surface body and a thicken, which I have done with this part, but as of yet have had no success unfolding this part.
Is there anything that I can do since the sides are twisted and not planar?
Is it possible to unfold a sheet metal part and save as a dwg in a specific folder automaticaly using ilogic?
Inventor 2012 Pro
Windows 7 64 bit
Core I5 2410M processor | GeForceGT 525M graphics card | 8G RAM
Just as the title says. I can't seem to get it done.
View 1 Replies View RelatedAutomation of the sheet metal bending parts unfold /refold in vb.net for Inventor 2013.
I want to unfold the part with selecting the one of the face as stationary face and further selecting the bend/ bends with reference to face in vb.net
For refold, I have to select the stationary reference automatically , based on some criteria, and further to select the single and multiple bends by using API.
Also, I want to find the bends and faces relationship i.e.
How to find the bend associated with number of faces, how to find face entity using internal name ;
The code I tried I am attaching here for your reference.
Where can I find sheet metal.ipt template for Inventor LT 2012 ?
I seem to be failing to get "off the ground" here ... The "Sheet Metal" tab at top will not appear. Also, the "sheet metal.ipt" template is not in my files. Should I do a complete deinstall/reinstall? This is my first (or should I say, zeroth?) attempt at sheet metal, so I seem to be crawling on all 4's.
We have a custom-made sheet metal punch consisting of a 5x5 matrix of 1/8" holes. We export flat patterns from Inventor as DXFs.
We normally make DXFs by creating a view of the flat pattern on a blank IDW template (no border, no title block, nothing) and export that view as a DXF. This lets us orient the view at will, unlike right-clicking on the flat pattern in the browser and selecting Save Copy As.
When the sheet metal guy assigns tooling in his software, he needs to get each punch to "lock onto" the corresponding feature in the DXF. Normally this isn't a problem, but it has been with this gang punch. The center hole of the punch needs to lock onto the correct hole in the DXF, and it can't always seem to do it. I've sat alongside the guy as he does this, and in his software the centers of the circles show up as dots/points. But on this punch, there isn't necessarily a dot in the center of every circle, and it's possible that the center hole, which really needs the dot, won't have one.
I've come up with a workaround for this: a work point in the IPT. In the attached part, it's feature Tooling1. The sheet metal guy confirms that if I include the work point in the DXF as a point (in the AutoCAD sense), he can lock onto it. However, I find that if I generate a DXF from the flat-pattern IDW, the point is lost. If I generate an ACAD DWG from the IDW and save the DWG as a DXF, the point comes through in the DXF. But that's an extra step.
Is there a way to export directly from IDW to DXF and not lose the work point? Or is this as good as it gets?
For the sake of simplicity, the attached part has no bends. I realize that if I did, I'd have to re-create the points in the flat pattern, but that's another discussion.
Trying to create a fold/bend/flange along a curved feature. I modeled the part to view but would like to be able to model this feature in sheet metal. This is how it would be manufactured, probably in a die roll.
View 6 Replies View RelatedA collegue asked me about this as he has been given a part to model and the details are for the flat sheet not the finished model. Is this possible in 'sheet metal'? I had a quick play but couldn't work it out. Im used to creating the finished part and 'un-folding' to get the flat pattern.Detail supplied below.
View 4 Replies View RelatedI just what to cut a sheet metal,
and I don't know how (see in Capture.JPG where i what to cut, and test.iam what I what to cut).
Where is the icon "project the geometry" ?
I need a flat pattern for this part but it seems impossible. STEP 2 illustrate the desirable result.
View 7 Replies View RelatedWorking with sheet metal and laying out a pattern for the cnc and was wondering if there is a way to imprint an extrusion onto the surface instead of cutting it. Mainly this will be used for a marking tool so the line type or layer would need to be different.
View 5 Replies View RelatedI am working on a bin type unit, and am having trouble creating a flange, I am creating the bin in the final product stage, then I will separate into manufacturer components. I am having trouble adding this flange around the top 4 edges of the bin. I need the four corners to meet on a miter 45. I will then rip down each seam and have 4 separate panels.
Is this a bad workflow? Is there a better route? I attached the part in Inventor 2013 format,
Attached are two sheet metal parts that we need to unfold and make them flat for a drawing. We cannot seem to capture the reference A or reference B planes asked for by the unfold command.
View 3 Replies View RelatedIs there a way to get the appearance of perforation on a sheet metal tube without having to create each and every hole? Looking for an appearance to drag onto the surface. Kind of like when you make a part look like it is made of brick. It being just an image on the model surface.
View 9 Replies View RelatedVery thin gauge aluminum sheets with a composite sandwiched between them.
The challenge is, the panels are relatively thick, 3mm or 4mm, but a router is used on the fold lines before bending to cut through all but the outer aluminum. This makes for a very tight bend radius.
So, thick 3 layer material, tight bend with mitered corners. Can Inventor's sheet metal tools handle this?
Can this part be made with sheet metal tools...it will be made from aluminum. I attach the shape made with standard tools and the sheet metal attempt.......how do add the sides in sheet metal.
View 4 Replies View Relatedhow incredible it is that Inventor still does not have a functional normal cut option for sheet metal like Solidworks and Solidedge have long had and I agree. I realize that there are the standard workflows like using derive and thicken to get around this problem. However, for those interested, there is a way to make a normal cut (for laser/cnc) directly in the sheet metal part in many cases. It involves using a sketch to split a face and then using the resulting profile for a thicker/cut feature. I'm always interested in any other methods out there for obtaining normal cuts in complex sheet metal (for a clean dxf export). By the way, Autodesk, do you actually not have any plans of ever adding functionality in this area?
View 4 Replies View Relatedwhat's the best way to make tabs on a rolled round ring. I got it done using unfold/refold option but I can not get sheet metal flat.
View 4 Replies View RelatedI am using IV ultimate 2013
just found about this add-in:[URL]
But its not working for me:
I ran the installer, created a sheet metal part and hit rebuild all, it did not create any proeprties, also tried to manually create the properteis then hit rebuild, no go.
I also did a search on my hardrive for the ApplicationPlugins, and placed the sheet metal folder in all of them(there were 3) tried again noto.
The add-in also does not appear in the add-in manager.
Or is there different what to get the flat pattern dimensions in 2013
I have just modelled a part with some faces and tried to convert to sheet metal to have inventor make the bends between the faces. However when trying to convert to sheet metal i get the following error message (Autodesk Inventor Professional Tip) - "This model cannot be converted to Sheet Metal because it contains features that have created multiple bodies. In order to convert to Sheet Metal these features must first be removed."
As the picture show the part only has 1 solid. Even when deleting all features except the "base" face I get the same error message or Tip as Inventor calls it.
I have a sheet metal door with a little bracket that gets welded to the inside lip through a cut-out in the face of the door. (see assembly)
I can't get the cut-out to line up flush with the inside lip of the door, as that is where the brackets gets welded to. the current aseembly is set-up the way I want, but I can't get a flat pattern on the door, becasue of the cut going across the bend.
I have checked off the "cut across bend" in the cut dialogue box, but this leaves a small (~1/32) lip in the cut-out and runs interference in the placement of the bracket.
Inventor Pro Suite 2013
Sean Farr
Product Designer at TESInc.ca
Inventor Professional 2014-Update 2 - AutoCAD Electrical 2014
Win7-x64 | ASUS P8Z77-V | i7 3770 -3.4 GHz | 32GB RAM |
240GB SSD | nVidia GTX 670 4GB - 320.49
How can I create a sheet metal jog? Like the attached. I used a contor flange to creat this one, but I have to add a jog to an existing part and don't want to have to totally redraw it just to get the jog. I'm hoping you can add it like you can a flange.
View 9 Replies View RelatedI was designing a part which consisted in a circular sheet metal part with a hole in the center, and a bent rectangular radii-oriented section. The second feature is the one I want to give focus in this thread.
Take a circular sheet metal with a diameter of 30 mm and a thickness of 1 mm. Now, to achieve the bent section one would perform - in a workshop or any other equivalent - two parallel slices of about 5 mm in length with a distance from each other of 4 mm. The slice would start in the circumference and end somewhere nearer to the center of the disc, but not parallel to a radius (since its parallel to another slice 4 mm apart as said before). After the slicing was done, one would bend the section between the slices 90 degrees to any of the sides.
Now, in Inventor I couldn't find a way to do this. I couldn't just slice a line through the disc. I worked it around by cutting rectangles of 0.2 mm in width and with the length of the desired slices, and then using the folding command to bend it 90 degrees. Is it possible to perform this so called slices?
I made a part in sheet metal and used the Cut tool for cut-outs...i tried by using flatten Patern,draw sketch but this did not cut part...is there a more better way of making these cuts?
INV 2013
I have been trying to work out how to make interlocking joints in sheet metal parts. The attached screen shot is the only way I have found to do it in Inventor, but it is a cheat. One of the flanges is a 85˚ bend because if it were 90˚ it would give an error "Flange Body intersects with existing body or self intersects."
View 4 Replies View RelatedI have setup all our Sheet Metal Rules to be all of our stocked in house sheet metals. The sheet metal rules are named like:
ALUM 5052 H32 1/2" (Part Number)
ST STEEL T304 3/8" (Part Number)
STEEL 44W 1/8" (Part Number)
etc.
And each rule has the proper thickness, material, and some standardized bend radius's. I've done this to introduce more uniformity in our designs, and to also allow the designer to put as much information into the model as possible, so that if someone else does the drawings, there is no question as to which material is used.
I now want to bring in the Sheet Metal Rule name into the drawing automatically. I can't seem to find a way to reference the Sheet Metal Rule directly from the drawing. What I need to do is pick a standard field in the i Properties (I used Stock Number), and put in =<Sheet Metal Rule> so that now the Stock Number references the Sheet Metal Rule, and then in the drawing I can just reference the Stock Number, and it will come in.
I don't like having to use the Stock Number as a middle man though, as none of our existing models are setup like this. Is it possible to reference Sheet Metal Rule in the drawing without having to use another field as a placeholder for the information?
