SolidWorks 2011 Parts Bible - Matt Lombard [284]
SolidWorks installs with a library of fairly simple forming tools that you can use as a starting point for your own personal customized library. You can also examine some of these tools to see how they create particular effects. You find this library in your Design Library in the Task pane. Some of the more interesting forming tools are the lances and louvers.
Creating forming tools
Forming tools are essentially a part that is used as a tool to form another part. One flat face of the forming tool part is designated as a Stopping Face, which is placed flush with the top face of the sheet metal part. You can move and rotate the tool with the Modify Sketch tool, and you can use dimensions or sketch relations to locate it.
Creating forming tools is far easier than it used to be. This section of the chapter gives you the information that you need to effectively create useful forming tools, addresses the limitations and unintended uses of forming tools, and provides a couple of hints for more complex forming tool creation.
To create a forming tool, click the Forming Tool button on the Sheet Metal toolbar. Figure 21.30 shows the PropertyManager interface for this tool.
FIGURE 21.30
The Form Tool PropertyManager and a sample tool with orientation sketch
The Stopping Face turns a special color, and so do any faces that are selected in the Faces to Remove selection box. Faces to Remove means that those faces will be cutouts in the sheet metal part.
Another aspect of the forming tool is the orientation sketch. Create the orientation sketch by using Convert Entities on the Stopping Face. If you have used this function in any of its previous versions, then you know that this latest iteration is far easier to create than before. However, to me, it looks like the orientation sketch has taken a step backward. The orientation sketch cannot be manually edited, and so for forming tools where footprints are symmetrical, but other features in the tool are not, you cannot tell from the sketch which direction the forming tool should face. Orientation could be managed more easily in earlier versions of forming tools because the placement sketch was just a manually created sketch.
When creating a forming tool, you must remember to build in generous draft and fillets, and not to build undercuts into the tool. Also keep in mind that when you have a concave fillet face on the tool, the radius becomes smaller by the thickness of the sheet metal; as a result, you must be careful about minimum radius values on forming tools. If there is a concave face on the tool that has a .060-inch radius and the tool is applied to a part with a .060-inch thickness, then the tool will cause an error because it forms a zero radius fillet, which is not allowed. Errors in applied forming tool features cannot be edited or repaired, except by changing forming tool dimensions.
Once the forming tool is created, special colors are used for every face on the part. For example, the Stopping Face is a light blue color, Faces to Remove are red, and all the other faces are yellow. Figure 21.31 shows the small addition that is made to the FeatureManager when you make a part into a forming tool. This feature did not exist in older versions of the tool.
FIGURE 21.31
The FeatureManager of a forming tool part
Forming Tool Library
The folder that the forming tools are placed into in the Design Library must be designated as a Forming Tool folder. To do this, right-click the folder that contains the forming tools and select Forming Tool Folder (a check mark appears next to this option).
Placing a forming tool
To place a forming tool on a sheet metal part (forming tools are only allowed to be used on parts with sheet metal features), you can drag the tool from the library and drop it on the face of the sheet metal part. Forming tools are limited to being used on flat faces.
From there, you can use the Modify Sketch tool or horizontal and vertical sketch relations to move and rotate the forming tool.