Having just downloaded SW 2009, I've been going through the
tutorials to become familiar with the new features. I was somewhat
shocked to see the hinge design used in the Advanced Design
Techniques tutorial. I've been a designer for more than just a few
years, and I've never seen a forged or cast hinge design such as
that SW has used. Hinges, at least the ones made in this country,
have historically been made out of formed metal sheet or strip,
with the pin hole being roll-formed. Don't believe me - go to any
hardware store and look at their hinge selection, or go online and
look at the hinge manufacturers offerings.
To SW: I fully understand that your intent was to illustrate modeling techniques as opposed to designing a real-world product. However, not everyone going through your tutorials is going to be an experienced designer. They're going to assume you know what your talking about when you show them a configurable design. It would be better if you used tried and true design examples rather than grabbing something out of 'na-na land' to get your point across. A less experienced detailer might even put such a design in their library; heaven forbid!
To SW: I fully understand that your intent was to illustrate modeling techniques as opposed to designing a real-world product. However, not everyone going through your tutorials is going to be an experienced designer. They're going to assume you know what your talking about when you show them a configurable design. It would be better if you used tried and true design examples rather than grabbing something out of 'na-na land' to get your point across. A less experienced detailer might even put such a design in their library; heaven forbid!
I haven't seen the tutorial (I'm still on 2008) but it is not bad design practice to design a hinge that is not made from formed sheet metal. There's a limit to what a formed sheet metal design can handle in terms of load. Look at aircraft piano hinges, there are two basic styles -- an formed one as you describe and an extruded design that features a closed hole. This is for applications where a formed part would not be strong enough and a larger, thicker design would not fit.
I have seen (and have built) hinges from tubing and sheet stock welded together and this has been done on production aircraft for many years. Plastic hinges are common and are almost always of a closed design type or a "live hinge" for applications not requiring a long service life. A look through McMaster-Carr's catalog will show you many hinge designs that fall outside of the formed variety. It's not unusual to design a hinge using something other than a formed part, it good design practice given the loads and materials being used. And it's a perfectly valid teaching example IMHO........Bill