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Converting to sheet metal and import diagnostics

Question asked by Aaron Jackson on May 3, 2016
Latest reply on May 3, 2016 by Aaron Jackson

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I run into this issue a lot and short of remodeling the whole part I haven't found a great way to fix it.

A lot of times when I import a step file it will have a corner that is designed corner-to-corner for welding or some other reason such as below:

When the file is imported the corner surfaces end up overlapping. Import diagnostics seems to really struggle with fixing issues like this one and I'm not great with the surfacing tools to fix this issue quickly.

Are there specific surfacing tools that are better for this kind of application?

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Dennis Bacon May 3, 2016 9:22 AM
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Aaron,,, It looks as though if you used "Convert to Sheet Metal" on this and input a slightly smaller material thickness you could get a converted model you could work with. Or maybe offset the outside surfaces by 0 (easy to do) and used the surfaces to convert. If you could attach your step file we could look at it and hopefully find an easy way to fix it.
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- Frank Ruepp @ Dennis Bacon on May 3, 2016 9:35 AM
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  Yes, I think the easiest way to convert this type of geometry into a sheet metal body is to either create an offset surface with offset 0 (RMB on any face and select "Select Tangency"; if not all of the faces get selected you are already in trouble since sheet metal always expects a tangent continuation of connected faces) and use this surface with a slightly thinner material thickness with the Convert to Sheet Metal feature. Or you can try it the old fashioned way where you would create a 0 offset surface, thicken that surface and insert the "Insert Bends" feature. The Insert Bends feature is very reliable but does not like any kind of intersecting bend areas. Therefore, if the Insert Bends feature fails you should check any imported corners if there are any intersecting bend areas (not all CAD systems handle sheet the same way; some are more or less tolerant against "mathematical incorrect" sheet metal geometry).
  Another option could be to go to Tools -> Options -> System Options -> Performance and check there the "Ignore self-intersection check for some sheet metal features".
  However I am not very convinced that option will cover any case. I have seen some cases where it works, especially when the sheet metal geometry was created with SOLIDWORKS.
  
  Kind regards
  Frank Ruepp
  Product Definition Team
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  - Aaron Jackson @ Frank Ruepp on May 3, 2016 10:05 AM
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    Frank and Dennis thanks for your help. Changing the sheet thickness did the trick. For some reason I thought that wouldn't make much of a difference. Thanks again!
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Converting to sheet metal and import diagnostics

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