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Sketched lines are not staying coincident with sheetmetal bend lines after exit sketch

Question asked by David McCullough on Apr 28, 2020
Latest reply on Apr 30, 2020 by David McCullough

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Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone has ever seen this before. If it is a known issue with Solidworks or if I did something crazy. I have been creating sketches for months now on a sheet metal flat pattern and making lines coincident with the auto-generated bend lines. The purpose of this is so the cutting machine just etches an inch long line instead of the entire length of the part.

So i started a sketch as usual, drew and dimensioned the lines as usual, and then when I exited the sketch, the lines just moved to seemingly random places. The size of this part was changed and extended from the original, but I have never had an issue with this before.

Anyone have any thoughts?

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Kevin Chandler Apr 28, 2020 8:20 AM

Hello,

Not knowing the design intent, but:

1) Why make sketches on the flat pattern? It will be suppressed once flatten is cancelled.

2) Use relations (equal & symmetric) instead of repeating dimensions.

3) Your sketch doesn't appear to be fully defined.

Get out of flatten, add unfolds instead, add the sketch and then do the sketch bend.

Kevin

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David McCullough @ Kevin Chandler on Apr 28, 2020 10:12 AM

1)The purpose of making the sketches on the flat pattern was stated... however perhaps I could have included more detailed background. Sometimes I forget others cannot see inside my head.

The purpose of this is so the cutting machine just etches an inch long line instead of the entire length of the part.

The part is a sheet metal part intended to be laser cut and bent. It is a machine guard.

2)The relations in the sketch instead of repeated dimensions is drawing practices, not relevant to the problem.

3) The sketch is 100% fully defined. That was not stated and cannot be clearly seen in my screenshots. My apologies.

Do you have any suggestions on better methods to generate bend lines and export to DXFs? When a part is several feet long, we do not need a line etched along the entire length of the bend, just an inch or so on each end. This drastically reduces cutting time and machine wear.

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Kevin Chandler @ David McCullough on Apr 28, 2020 11:04 AM

Hello,

Sorry, I also wasn't clear in my reply.

I couldn't replicate your issue.

The added lines stayed colinear to the bend line and dimmed to the end of the flange, even after a resize.

I'm on SW2019 sp5.

Can you replicate it on a new file, just a base flange with a few flanges?

Kevin

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David McCullough @ Kevin Chandler on Apr 28, 2020 1:50 PM

No, I have not been able to replicate it on a separate or a new part. Even when I deleted features from that part to post it, the problem went away, so it must have just been a glitch.

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Jim Sculley Apr 28, 2020 8:27 AM

Can you upload the part? Even a simplified version will do as long as it still exhibits the bad behavior.

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David McCullough @ Jim Sculley on Apr 28, 2020 10:15 AM

Unfortunately due to policies, I cannot upload the actual part. When I removed some of the features to create a simplified part, the problem went away and the sketch lines became coincident with the bend lines. Perhaps I am on my own at this point.

I conclude it must have something to do with one of the other features. There was one feature that was not referencing any other feature(that i could find) other than the base sheet and it still showed parent dependencies, so I believe the problem must be there.

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David McCullough Apr 30, 2020 9:56 AM

It looks like this was just a glitch with a feature in this part. I have not been able to replicate it since.

The problem appeared to be with an extruded cut that resulted in three separate bodies being created that an extruded boss later joined back together. After deleting that feature and rebuilding, the problem went away.

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7 Replies

Kevin Chandler Apr 28, 2020 8:20 AM
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Hello,

Not knowing the design intent, but:
1) Why make sketches on the flat pattern? It will be suppressed once flatten is cancelled.
2) Use relations (equal & symmetric) instead of repeating dimensions.
3) Your sketch doesn't appear to be fully defined.

Get out of flatten, add unfolds instead, add the sketch and then do the sketch bend.

Kevin
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- David McCullough @ Kevin Chandler on Apr 28, 2020 10:12 AM
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  1)The purpose of making the sketches on the flat pattern was stated... however perhaps I could have included more detailed background. Sometimes I forget others cannot see inside my head.
  The purpose of this is so the cutting machine just etches an inch long line instead of the entire length of the part.
  The part is a sheet metal part intended to be laser cut and bent. It is a machine guard.
  
  2)The relations in the sketch instead of repeated dimensions is drawing practices, not relevant to the problem.
  
  3) The sketch is 100% fully defined. That was not stated and cannot be clearly seen in my screenshots. My apologies.
  
  Do you have any suggestions on better methods to generate bend lines and export to DXFs? When a part is several feet long, we do not need a line etched along the entire length of the bend, just an inch or so on each end. This drastically reduces cutting time and machine wear.
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  - Kevin Chandler @ David McCullough on Apr 28, 2020 11:04 AM
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    Hello,
    
    Sorry, I also wasn't clear in my reply.
    I couldn't replicate your issue.
    The added lines stayed colinear to the bend line and dimmed to the end of the flange, even after a resize.
    I'm on SW2019 sp5.
    
    Can you replicate it on a new file, just a base flange with a few flanges?
    
    Kevin
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    - David McCullough @ Kevin Chandler on Apr 28, 2020 1:50 PM
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      No, I have not been able to replicate it on a separate or a new part. Even when I deleted features from that part to post it, the problem went away, so it must have just been a glitch.
      Like • Show 0 Likes0
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Jim Sculley Apr 28, 2020 8:27 AM
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Can you upload the part? Even a simplified version will do as long as it still exhibits the bad behavior.
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- David McCullough @ Jim Sculley on Apr 28, 2020 10:15 AM
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  Unfortunately due to policies, I cannot upload the actual part. When I removed some of the features to create a simplified part, the problem went away and the sketch lines became coincident with the bend lines. Perhaps I am on my own at this point.
  
  I conclude it must have something to do with one of the other features. There was one feature that was not referencing any other feature(that i could find) other than the base sheet and it still showed parent dependencies, so I believe the problem must be there.
  Like • Show 0 Likes0
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David McCullough Apr 30, 2020 9:56 AM
Mark Correct
Correct Answer
It looks like this was just a glitch with a feature in this part. I have not been able to replicate it since.
The problem appeared to be with an extruded cut that resulted in three separate bodies being created that an extruded boss later joined back together. After deleting that feature and rebuilding, the problem went away.
Like • Show 0 Likes0
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Sketched lines are not staying coincident with sheetmetal bend lines after exit sketch

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