Hi Alex,

I have absolutelly same experiences regarding metal sheets manufaturing - STEP file + dimension drawing with tolerances as a primary data sources for manufacturing, then it is chosen adequate bending tool for CNC machine, because for example holes near to bending radius, thickness and density of metal sheet material can affect choosing of right tool to avoid any unwanted deformation. Based on these information Autopol does the correction of flatten shape dimension during unfolding.

...therefore I stopped attempt unfold metal sheets parts inside MoI :-)

Mik

Hi Carlos.

Alex's workflow could be more effective and maybe more correspond to SpaceClaim workflow, i.e. to start with basic plane / extrude required edges / make thickness via offset - shell.

I use similar worflow...only difference is making radius via filleting after modelling basic shape.

Mik

hi

i agree , it's not easy to unfold a bending part automaticly
However , it can be easier to draw sheetmetal with 2 fonctions:
1 - bending fonction
2 - part adjust fonction

please , have a look on my SKETCHUP workflow .
( FredoScale bar is a Fredo6 SKETCHUP plugin )

Perhaps , these 2 fonctions can be add on the V4 ?

Chri

That workflow looks great but would be resource intensive to put together. What about adopting what is already in MOI.
Use the Shell Command but with an adaptation where it automatically creates the corner radiuses based on the material thickness.
Various rules would need to be followed in the initial skin construction allowing for corner breaks and bends inside or outside the material.

Shell for SHEETMETAL adapation.

Here is method using current MOI tools.

SKIN > SHELL > Apply Radius

Shell and Radius Step could be rolled into one.

Hi Michael,

Looks that my request is harder to code than i tought : ) or probably only me will benefit from it.

Ok, and this: (after selecting 1 face of a solid) Copy to clipboard > Paste (same layer or new layer) > Rotate (90º along largest lenght) > Extrude (mouse pointer).

Copy/Paste/Rotate/Extrude are functions already present, nothing new. Its feasible to align this 4 tools in a sequence.

Or a toolbox were the user can (re)place the tools and sequence needed.

Be aware that i've no idea of the work involve on this sugestions.

Thanks.

Carlos

Hi Carlos, the difficult part currently would be in getting the axis directions from the surface for which way to rotate, there aren't really any functions currently for a script to interrogate a surface and retrieve directions from it, I guess unless a world axis aligned bounding box gives you all that you need.

I do want to add more functions in V4 to enable scripts to retrieve more shape information from surfaces and curves and that's what would probably be required in order to automate what you described above.

> Or a toolbox were the user can (re)place the tools and sequence needed.

A toolbox where you would interact with tools and reorder them would involve a huge amount of work, I mean you could check out Max's nodes library which is basically an environment to do that type of stuff.

- Michael

Hi Carlos, you know maybe for the particular case of a plane it would be easier than I had thought since it's possible to get the corner points of the plane from the endpoints of the boundary edges...

What about if instead of choosing X / Y / Z in UI controls like you showed, if you would click on one of its edges to define the pivot axis?

- Michael

Hi Michael,

'if you would click on one of its edges to define the pivot axis'

Yes, i thing so... the rotation is (always) on/along the middle point of the smallest edge... so a extra click there will define the pivot axis.

Or maybe the World Axis could do, i don't know.

About Max's Nodes: Is completely out of my reach : )

Thanks.

Carlos

Hi Carlos,

Only fo information: Sweep: profile (required rectangle) + rail (required radius) = quite quick bending workflow. After solid arc modelling it is possible to continue via extrude/face only.

Maybe new tool in V4 - Draw Solid / Arc would be useful.




Mik

Draw Solid ARC is basically same function in Solidworks CREATE EDGE FLANGE this could certainly be an easy workflow to create most sheet metal parts with radius and projection angle as an input would be great.

Maybe with a head count for backers with some $$$ this function could be coded.

Hi Carlos, so let me ask a little more detail about your current workflow.

You wrote:
> The workflow is like this: Select a solid face > Copy to clipboard > Paste > Rotate (usually 90ª) > Extrude. That's it.

For the "select a solid face" is this a single surface like one you made with Construct > Planar or is it a face that is joined to other faces in a solid? Or sometimes either?

Do you use the "Both sides" option in the Extrude step?

You could probably streamline your current steps with the regular MoI toolset by using the Transform > Rotate > Rotate axis command (set RotateAxis on a shortcut key). You'd want to enable the checkbox for "Make copies" so that you'd automatically drop a copy when doing the rotation. You only have to manually enable the "Make copies" checkbox the first time you use it, it will then stay on for the remainder of that program session. Then you'd pick 4 points to do the rotation, first 2 points define the rotation axis, then the next point defines the 0 angle point, then the final point gives the rotation angle. Have Straight Snap turned on so the final point automatically snaps at 90 degree increments. Then right click to end, if you continue to left click it will drop more copies.

It looks like this and should work with a plane of any orientation (here I've just set up a shortcut key for RotateAxis and run it one time previously to enable the "Make copies" checkbox):



Is that any better than your current steps?

- Michael

And no need Manipulator! ;)

Hi Pilou, yes RotateAxis can give you a lot of flexibility to do a rotation relative to specific points which tends to be difficult to do with manipulators. Manipulators tend to be good at rotating objects around some arbitrary central point, it's a pretty different thing. In CAD the primary focus is on accuracy.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

Thanks for taking the time.

"For the "select a solid face" is this a single surface like one you made with Construct > Planar or For the "select a solid face" is this a single surface like one you made with Construct > Planar or is it a face that is joined to other faces in a solid? Or sometimes either?? Or sometimes either?"

Is always a face of a solid.

"Do you use the "Both sides" option in the Extrude step?"

No, never.

"Is that any better than your current steps?"

Not so much, first impression my workflow still looks faster, will test it tomorrow at the office, its night here : )

One thing that could improve is if the copy could be selected instead of the first (atm is the original face which remains selected).

This workflow is like this: Selet a face (of a solid) > RotateAxis (shortcut R) with Make copy selected> click 5 times (to set the axis(2) + angle(2) + right click) > Unselect the 1st face (1 click) > Select the new face (1 click) > Extrude (shortcut E). Done. The lenght of the extrusion is live on mouse pointer.

Thank you!

Carlos

Hi Carlos, thanks for the additional info!

re:
> This workflow is like this: Selet a face (of a solid) > RotateAxis (shortcut R) with Make
> copy selected> click 5 times (to set the axis(2) + angle(2) + right click) > Unselect the
> 1st face (1 click) > Select the new face (1 click) > Extrude (shortcut E). Done. The
> lenght of the extrusion is live on mouse pointer.

If these steps do what you need I think it will be pretty easy to streamline this with a custom script.

How important is it to have the extrusion live on the mouse pointer? What if it was only entered numerically in an input field, with the benefit being that you'd see the extruded result right as you were doing the rotation and it would remember the last value so if you're doing the same thickness repeatedly there wouldn't be any extra extrude step? Or would that be undesirable?

- Michael

Hi Michael,
Both options (live on mouse and lenght number) will be used (at one time, one or the other), but if i need to choose one i'll go for the 'live on mouse' because often i've to snap on some face/edge/vert.
Carlos

Hi Michael,

only for inspiration :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m38VqL0t9sk
http://sheetmetal.me/formulas-and-functions/bend-allowance/

We can do it manually of course with respect to bending rules:



... but in future some 'Solid Arc' tool would be sufficient and it could help a lot.

Mik

For information also , a part of in my workflow:

Chri

@Chri
Why there are not "temporary" violet rectangular volume ?
Because you make a direct PushPull on the piece ?
Because sometime, maybe there will be more easy to put this temporary box and "pushpull" it than try to find a face to extrude! :)
(no need to orbit in complex position)

And for the Red Blue Yellow : it's allways the same or depending of the "Thickness" of the piece?
(have they same thickness ? )
There is no measure of the thickness of the principal piece! :)