Autodesk Inventor

[#1]

The sheet metal unfold rule has nothing at all to do with your bend radius. That equation is to find the developed flat length for the arc in your bend.  If you can't do a bend table, you may want to consider putting a iLogic rule in your template to control the bend radius. Just set the bend radius that you found in the sheet metal styles box to a custom parameter and then use an if then block in the rule to control the bend radius for different thicknesses.

Something like:

If Thickness = .25 Then
     bendR = .125
ElseIf Thickness = .375 Then
    bendR = .3125
End If

bendR being a user parameter.

[#2]

OK, I think I see what you're saying. It does make sense.

So correct me if I'm wrong (I'm thinking I gotta start from scratch on what I was doing), I have numerous excel tables covering the material, the mat'l thickness and the Bend Radii. For example:

AL 2024-T3

Sheet thickness of 0.016" has a bend radius of 0.06"

Sheet thickness of 0.020" has a bend radius of 0.06"

Sheet thickness of 0.025" has a bend radius of 0.09"

etc.

This all needs to go into the Sheet Metal Rule menu under the "Bend" tab, which by default lists the Bend Radius of: "Thickness*3" which of course is what I need to over ride with the tables I wrote above.

Which means I need to create a user parameter for this and have this point to that user parameter?

[#3]

That is how I do it, yes.

The only other option I'm aware of is to create a different sheet metal rule for each Thickness, but I wouldn't recommend that. Of course, someone else might post with a better way but that's what I have.

It should also be noted that we only use two bend radii here for 98% of our work.

If you would like an example I can post up my sheetmetal template file for you to look at.

[#4]

mrattray,

That would be great but my client has everything "download" blocked so I wouldn't be able to open it and look at it until I get back to my office later this afternoon.

But I'd still like to see how you did it, eventhough I think I'm on the same path.

Thanks again for all your help.

I don't recall ever having these types of issues the last time I played with these settings....but then again that was a many revisions back.

[#5]

Happy to help.

There's been a long gap of non-inventor use for me so I don't really remember anything of old releases, but this works well for me. It's a "set it and forget it" solution.

[#6]

mrattray,

Possibly a simple answer to this question but I'm having a minor issue with it....I can't seem to generate a "pull down" or a multiple list equation field for anything marked with the unit type of "text". How did you do such?

[#7]

Nevermind, found it.

Instead of selecting the Equation field and selecting "multi" as I have to for a numeric unit, I have to select the Unit field where I just selected "Text" and select "multi" there.....WTF is with that Adesk?

To add a multiple Equation field one has to select the Unit field but only if the Unit field is set to Text?

Can I have a quick word with the programmers who wrote this code?

Good Lord.

[#8]

That's not the behaviour I get, Jim. I'm able to set a text parameter to multivalue by right clicking on either the string value itself or the units. This may seem silly, but were you in "edit mode" when you tried to set it? If you have your text cursor actually active in the value field so you can type into it you wont be able to get the context menu from it. You have to hit tab or left click outside of the box to exit "edit mode" on that cell then the context menu becomes available.

[#9]

Yeah, it's really odd.

I have to get out of edit mode, then I have to select the input box and make it active, then I can RMB and get the option for multiple input, but even then I have to do it numerous times to get that option to list.

And again, only for the "text" condition, I need to select or make the "units" column active in order to select the multiple input for the "equation" column. If "numeric" or "true/false" is in the Units column, it works as one would think.

Maybe I wasn't holding my head at the correct angle...oh, and I think I have to have my left foot off the floor by 2" as opposed to 3".

[#10]

Maybe I'm over thinking this becuase it seems like I'm having a real tough time getting what I want out of this these days. That or when I did all this before, it was much more simple or I'm losing it in my old age.

All I'm trying to do is somehow set our sheetmetal template to include or be populated with our custom sheet metal materials, thickness & bend radii and I seem to keep running into roadblocks. I know it's not or shouldn't be this difficult so I'm pretty sure it's me that's losing it.

I've got a excel spread sheet all set with the materials, thickness and require radius for each. There are only 4 material types, and each has a list of 20 different thicknesses with 20 different radii for each. What I'm having a brainfart with is getting this spread sheet to populate or link with the parameters menu.

I kow I can link the spread sheet using the "link" button, but from there (correct me if I'm wrong please), I should just be able to create a user parameter and have the Equation column of the Parameters menu call out the cell and row number of the linked spread sheet? (Why isn't this process spelled out somewhere, step by step?)