how do i make a sheetmetal plate with a waved patern and than unfold it so i can see the bending lines, i have drawn the sketch up in SW and tried to convert it to sheetmetal to unfold it but i got already stuck by the conversion, hope someone can help me
Jean-Pierre,
You'll need to redraw your profile with with arcs and straight lines. SolidWorks can't make a flat pattern from splines. Make sure your arcs and lines are tangent to each other. It looks to me like something you should be able to make work.
every arc is different, been sketched up that is why i have used the spline and the wave intervals are at an inconsistant interval, if it flatten i would be already verrrrrrry happy but that i cant use the mearure tool to measure the arc length once i have the distance i can offset centrelines from origin.
i have made a simple profile it is been sketched ar erik said with straight lines and curves, once i want to convert it into sheet metal it wont let me unfold it, can someone give me information how to go from here, once i can unfold this i can work out other profiles.
Jean-Pierre,
I opened your test unit with eDrawings (used the Mac, graphics card on the PC is misbehaving) and I think that the sharp corner might be why it won't flatten, try and put a radius that has an ID of at least the sheet metal thickness and see what happens. As for the variable curvature, you just have to get the closest approximation using as few tangent arcs as possible. Depending on how you actually form it the metal will probably end up closer to your desired spline shape than the approximation.
Erik,
Hi Erik
i will try it, hope it works you have been of an enormes help, i am new in sheetmetal and want to learn as much as possible.
regards
jp
Jean,
I took a shot at your part using lines and arcs the sketch.
One thing to chack is ithe Bend Allowance/Deduction or K-factor, whichever one you use. I used a K-factor of .5 in the model I made, otherwise it would not flatten the end forms. Also, make sure all your lines sketch and arcs are Tangent.
Anyway, here is a v2009 file for you to have a look at. You may have to adjust the thickness and sketch dimensions.
Harold,
I'm glad you were able to make that work. I was beginning to think I was being overly optimistic in my first reply to Jean-Pierre. I don't have time at work to try out something like that and the PC at home is having "issues". Getting "free form" sheet metal shapes to flatten out is sometimes quite a puzzle requiring lots of tweaking to get things "just so".
As you mention making sure everything is tangent (and a minimum radius for the material) is important. I don't think SW will add bend radius to a part like this for you, the way it will in other cases.
Now I wonder if Jean-Pierre is getting something that works for him?
Erik,
what i have done for manufacturing purposes, i have drawn it up in sw, exported it to cad and layed it out by measuring the arc lengths on a flat piece of sheetmetal and i made also in cad a template but all this was verrrrrrry labour intensive. Now i have a 20 piece comming in and i want to to it fast, the only thing is every bend is diffirent and no straight lines, that is where SW cant figure it out where to flatten i think it only works with radiuses and flat lines. i appreciate your time erik
I am not positive, but I believe you will need to rplace the spline with lines and arcs. SW sheet metal really only deals with bends made with a press brake or similar tooling. to flatten this shape you will likely need to look at the various add-ins for sheetmetal work.