Hi,
I am using SW2011 SP5.
Has anyone got a work around to be able to flat pattern sheetmetal Archimedes screws as Solidworks sheet metal cannot manage this at the moment.
Hi,
I am using SW2011 SP5.
Has anyone got a work around to be able to flat pattern sheetmetal Archimedes screws as Solidworks sheet metal cannot manage this at the moment.
I tried the lofted bend solution (picking paths form the original revolved feature inner and outer spiral edges). As you say it can only be used for less than one revolution. Solidworks flattens the spiral, rather than unfolding it, limiting the pitch to less then one revolution.
It would appear that to unwrap an Archimedes screw of more than one revolution properly the outer or inner spiral edge would have to be used, but Solidworks refers sheet metal features back to a fixed plane or linear edge for unfolding, thus preventing this.
Additionally there is a considerable amount of stretching between the inner and outer helix edges, maybe making the calculation process too difficult for Solidworks to cope with at present.
I'm sure others have come up with something but I recall seeing a response from Matt Lombard to another thread, perhaps he'll see this thread. If I remember correctly, I think he posted an example that used a sweep and then a sheet metal example using lofted bends. the problem with the lefted bends example though was that it could only account for less than one full revolution.