Machining: Sheetmetal & Weldments
Sheetmetal
- add a jog (offset) to a sheetmetal part to allow overlap to an adjacent edge
- bring in an IGES part, recognize the bends, and rip the corners of a solid to allow you to add bends
- create a sheetmetal part as a half model and apply symmetry (as a mirror) at the end
- create your own sheetmetal forming tools (Insert>Sheetmetal>Forming Tool). Define stopping face and faces to remove. Save As>Form Tool.
- design from the flat pattern and add lines where the bends are to be located. Lines don't need to extend all the way across a part. If you have multiple lines in your sketch, all bends will bend in the same direction.
- if you want to make changes to a legacy sheetmetal part, convert it first to a sheetmetal part (e.g. edge flange), then add cuts, and holes
- sheetmetal design stages: designing with features, forming, creating drawings, using symmetry, processing rounds, designing in the flat
- shell a SolidWorks part and allow it to be converted to a sheetmetal part
- show the Bend Deviations on each "flattened" feature to determine the amount of deformation between flattened and unflattened versions of the part.
- there are two basic sheetmetal techniques: start with a sheetmetal base flange, or transform an existing (e.g. imported) part into a sheetmetal part
- use Sheetmetal>Close Corner to extend flanges to clean up the model
- use hems (on linear edges) to fold over edges of a model
- use open profiles to create a lofted blend. You cannot have sharp corners, or more than two profiles.
- use the rip feature tocut the corners with a tiny gap that allows the part to be flattened.
Weldment
- add welds to the corners of a folded sheetmetal part (in SW2008)
- create process plans by adding configurations showing you how the sheetmetal part was built
- procedure to insert structural members:
specify a profile
select the sketch segments
specify the orientation and position of profiel
specify the corner conditions between structural members
- specify as machined conditions to multibody parts by applying Cut (Cut with Sweep, etc) & Feature Scope. Make sure to suppress from as welded/cast configurations.
- start a sheetmetal box with a shelled part
- to determine if using sheetmetal or weldment, determine how the part will be fabricated.
- use multiple configurations for castings/forging
- using the weldment feature adds configurations and custom properties
- weldments are modeled as multibody parts
