SolidWorks 2011 Parts Bible - Matt Lombard [295]
FIGURE 22.8
Two multi-body sheet metal scenarios
Displaying bodies on the sheet metal drawing
SolidWorks allows you to hide bodies within a drawing view. To do this, click inside the view; at the top of the PropertyManager for the view in the Reference Configuration panel is a button labeled Select Bodies. Use this button to change the bodies that are visible in the drawing view. If you use the method of right-clicking a face of the body you want to hide, and choosing Show/Hide⇒Hide Body, you may get yourself into a situation where the body is hidden in multiple views, and you may have difficulty regaining control over which bodies are shown in which views again. The Select Bodies button and the body selection list are shown in Figure 22.9.
FIGURE 22.9
Selecting the bodies to show on the drawing
Caution
Use the Select Bodies button in the Reference Configurations panel of the View PropertyManager to hide bodies in views. If you use another method, you may not be able to control which bodies are shown in a particular view. Whether this is a bug or by design is unclear, but the functionality does not appear to be consistent.
Another thing to be careful of is that in SolidWorks 2011 SP 1, the new functionality that allows you to use the part color on the drawing does not apply to bodies. If you use this setting, all of the bodies will use the part color. If your part uses an appearance, a color is always part of the appearance assignment, although the part may not display the color. For example, a steel appearance may still have a blue color assigned. You will see the texture-like appearance when the part is shaded, but you will see the associated color when the part is shown in wireframe mode.
Using a cut list in a sheet metal part
When you create a new sheet metal part, the FeatureManager automatically gets a new item called a cut list. The cut list is technically called a “weldment cut list,” but it is used in sheet metal as well as in weldments to keep track of the parts modeled as bodies. The cut list is not very interesting until you have multiple pieces to list, and this only happens in a part file when you have multi-body parts. Beyond using multi-bodies as an interim condition where you're bridging between bodies, the cut list will be used when the final model is intended to have multiple bodies. The real use of the cut list is on the drawing for listing each of the individual pieces that go together to make the finished part. These pieces can be purchased hardware, other sheet metal parts, or welded plate parts, among others.
Cross-Reference
Weldments and Bills of Materials are covered in the SolidWorks 2011 Assemblies Bible (Wiley, 2011).
You can add several types of values to the cut list. It is essentially a Bill of Materials for welded assemblies. To access the interface for cut list properties, right-click a cut list item, and select Properties. Figure 22.10 shows a default cut list properties table.
FIGURE 22.10
Managing properties for a sheet metal cut list
Managing cut list properties
To fill out the cut list properties, use the Cut List Summary the same way that you would use the Custom Properties data entry. Notice also that several properties already exist for the cut list. These include sheet metal–specific items like Bounding Box Length, Sheet Metal Thickness, the number of bends, material, or a special cut list–specific description. You can add additional custom properties as well.
Notice that on the left in Figure 22.10 is a list of all of the cut list items. This enables you to set the properties for each item. While most of the values use automated syntax, others, like the Description or any custom properties you might add, require manual data entry.
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