Unfold a tube

[Anonymous]

Hi

I have tube that has been generated on frame generator and notched to run into the side of another tube.

Is there anyway of unfolding the tube to provide a flat profile.

What i ultimately want to do is print the flat pattern off at 1:1 scale, cut it out and wrap it around the actual steel tube to be able to trace the profile onto the tube so i can cut the profile roughly before offering the two tubes together.

Any advice would be gratefully recieved.

Many thanks

Andy

[JDMather]

Thicken/Offset the outer or inner face (depending on what is more critical relative to your finished dimensions) as a surface distance zero.  Delete Face with Lump option the solid body.
Thicken the surface by the tube thickness.
Convert to Sheet Metal part.
Set the Thickness of sheet metal and add a Rip feature.

Flat Pattern.

Do as derived part as suggested to leave the original alone (in that case derive as surface body and thicken and rip).

[eman6398]

I make a lot of flat patterns here for the shop. most times i will derive the part, then cut out or shell out the inside so i get about .005 thickness with the outside, cut my seam the length of the part then set my sheetmetal thickness to .005. then unfold. Guys out in the shop love these. it saves so much time.

[jtylerbc]

I use a slight variation on what JD just described.

Instead of offsetting surfaces, I start out by making a derived component from the original tube.  Then I follow the same sheet metal, rip, and flatten procedure he listed.

The derived component makes it easy to update the pattern to minor changes in the frame design, so I'm able to start making patterns a little earlier than I otherwise would be able to.  Obviously it breaks if you change tube sizes, since the file changes, but it will remain associative through changes to the intersection geometry.

[Anonymous]

HI

Thanks very much for your reply. What you have described is exactly what i wanted to do.

I am a new inventor user and am struggling to understand how to follow what you have explained though. any chance of a more detailed explanation. I am still getting to terms with the programe and havent got used to most of the processes yet.

Many thanks again

Andy 

[jtylerbc]

Maybe this will help.  This is a work instruction I wrote for use inside my company - oddly enough, since this isn't something I do all the time, its only use so far has been to guide me when I haven't created a pattern in a while.  Obviously, it will follow the derived component method I described, rather than the offset surface JDMather explained.

It is custom-written for our most common case of building a pattern to repair a damaged frame.  Much of the first few pages are written to show an Inventor user how to set up a partial Frame Generator model of this case, so they won't apply to you so much.

It does not necessarily explain every click in the process (it is written for Inventor users that just haven't done a coping pattern before).  However, hopefully it will get you close enough to figure out the places where you're stuck.