SolidWorks 2011 Parts Bible - Matt Lombard [292]
17. Double-click the new feature in the FeatureManager; a set of dimensions appears on the screen. Change the 4-inch dimension to 13.9 inches and the 6-inch dimension to 11.9 inches. The cross break should now look like Figure 21.57.
Create a new configuration named Flat. In this configuration, suppress the forming tool that you just placed, and unsuppress the Flat Pattern feature at the bottom of the tree.
Figure 21.57
Resizing the cross break to 13.9
Summary
SolidWorks offers a broad range of sheet metal tools to tackle most of your modeling situations. Some of the tools still require a little imagination to visualize real-world results because the complex shapes created in the real world where bends intersect are problems for such highly automated software. The tools are able to deal with imported or generically modeled geometry as well as parts created using the dedicated sheet metal tools.
Chapter 22: Creating Sheet Metal Drawings
In This Chapter
Creating sheet metal drawings
Working with flat patterns
Making special sheet metal drawing templates
After you have created your sheet metal models, you need to make drawings to get them manufactured. Fortunately, SolidWorks provides some nice tools to document, dimension, and annotate your parts in 2D.
Depending on whether your company does its own sheet metal manufacturing, you may or may not actually make flat pattern drawings. Many companies that use outside manufacturing for their sheet metal parts may just send them a drawing with views of a dimensioned part in the folded state. This is because it is the final formed dimensions that you want the shop to be responsible for, and if they use different flat dimensions to achieve that, it doesn't really matter.
Many users may think that providing a fully dimensioned flat pattern is a great value to the sheet metal shop. If your sheet metal shop is a professional outfit, they probably have their own software and their own way of doing things, in which case a flat pattern is redundant information and may cause more confusion than clarity.
On the other hand, if you are the sheet metal shop, or you specifically create drawings for the sheet metal shop, then creating the flat pattern is actually your business. This chapter will give you all the information you need to know to make sheet metal drawings, regardless of your role and without trying to tell you how to do your job.
Introducing Sheet Metal Drawings
Sheet metal drawings can take on various roles in your product development process — anything from general “make me a part that looks like this” to actually specifying how the work is to be done. Some drawings may need only the flat pattern, or only the formed part. Here I will assume that a sheet metal drawing will require both the formed and flat part, just to cover as much ground as possible.
If you need a drawing with both formed and flat geometry, you might consider making a two-page drawing — one page with the flat pattern and the other page with views of the 3D part. You might use one drawing sheet for the press operator and the other sheet for inspection. If you only need the flat pattern, you might consider using an isometric view of the part just for reference.
If your sheet metal parts are welded together with other sheet metal, structural, or plate parts, you might want to refer to the section later in this chapter on multi-body sheet metal drawings. You can accomplish the same things with an assembly (and in some cases the assembly will be the better option), but many people think that modeling in multi-bodies is easier. Sheet metal multi-body techniques are a little different, and in my opinion don't offer as many advantages as normal multi-body techniques. If you need to work in this mode, be careful to leave room on your drawing for exploded views and a weld list. Flat patterns require some extra thought if you have multiple sheet metal bodies in a single part.
You may also want to make a special drawing template for sheet