This one has me stumped. I only seldom work with sheet metal so that doesn't help matters :-)
I need to create a sheet metal tube filled with short rectangular louver bent towards the inside of the tube (ends of the louvers / tabs can be ripped open).
Any ideas how to approach this? My problem is I can create a louver on a flat surface, but a cylinder...?
Thanks
Marc, Troy's right in that the sheet-metal functionality can't do this. I tried making a cheese grater a few tyears ago that had this kind of pattern. When I folded the part after adding the die flutes (is that the right term) to the flat, the features turned to elliptical holes
that meants either you add the louvers to the flat pattern and roll the part back into a cylinder using flex
Or you have to create a mandrel body and transfer the flutes to the sheet metal cylinder via the indent feature.
You can use the indent feature, but the resulted body will not be sheetmetal.
http://help.solidworks.com/2013/English/solidworks/sldworks/c_indent_overview.htm
You are stumped because Solidworks is not capable of doing what you are trying to create.