I have tried several different ways to re-create this part as sheet metal so as to flatten it and have been unable. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I have tried several different ways to re-create this part as sheet metal so as to flatten it and have been unable. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Is this for a RAM? Why would you need to flatten it?
In any case what you'd have to do it create it as a hem and trim off the base tab I believe.
It is a layer of the top cap of a curb that follows a spiral staircase. I need to flatten so I can cut it out of bendable sheet goods on our CNC. I have been trying to create a swept flange with no success.
Mark,
Take the part that you have and put it in an assembly and save the assembly and insert a new part, select the front plane and exit the sketch. (OR.... you can recreate the helix edges) Then while you are still in the edit part mode, open a 3D sketch and select one of the 4 spiral edges, convert the entities and close the sketch. Open another 3D sketch and select the opposite edge and convert entities, close the sketch.
In the feature manager tree select both sketches and insert "Lofted Bends" add the thickness
Later,
John
Thanks, John. I don't know why this didn't occur to me. I have successfully used lofted bends in a similar way before. Thanks for the help.
You're welcome
If you had SW15, you should be able to create a zero offset surface and then use the new Surface Flatten tool.
2015 What's New in SOLIDWORKS - Flattening Surfaces
Tech Tip: SOLIDWORKS 2015 Tutorial - Flattening Surfaces - YouTube
I just updated to 2015 Standard. Is this tool only available in premium?
Not Sure Mark -
Kelvin's way is to flatten a part, however it doesn't act as a sheet metal part, where you have the bounding box, sheet metal gage and other sheet metal add on features - Still a great way to get a flat quick
Yes, sorry! I had forgotten about that very disappointing fact.
See this thread for more comments on this flatten surface
Mark,
Take the part that you have and put it in an assembly and save the assembly and insert a new part, select the front plane and exit the sketch. (OR.... you can recreate the helix edges) Then while you are still in the edit part mode, open a 3D sketch and select one of the 4 spiral edges, convert the entities and close the sketch. Open another 3D sketch and select the opposite edge and convert entities, close the sketch.
In the feature manager tree select both sketches and insert "Lofted Bends" add the thickness
Later,
John