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Custom Sheet Metal Bend help needed

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Message 1 of 28
CelticDesignServices
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Custom Sheet Metal Bend help needed

I'm drawing a blank on something I know is rather easy. Maybe that's the problem...overthinking.

Anyways, I'm trying to create some custom sheet metal styles with specific bend radii based on material and thickness.

 

In the Styles menu I have the menu up and have selected the Unfold Method as "Custom Equation", the Equation Type as "Bend Allowance" and Angular Ref as "Open Angle".

This lists the three basic rows in the menu for the default settings.

(see attached)

 

Here's where I'm lost...I need to create the equations so a sheet thickness of say .016 has a bend radius of .03, etc.

For the life of me I can't this to work....can't get the right equations, etc....what am I doing wrong or how in the world do I get such?

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Jim
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27 REPLIES 27
Message 2 of 28

OK, I think my brain fart has passed.

I think I figured it out but would still like to know any info anyone might have on this.

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Jim
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Message 3 of 28

Ok, still need some help on this it seems.

I assume I'm missing some setting somewhere.

 

I've created a new sheet metal style and rule, etc. as shown in the attachments, made it the default.

Yet when I create a sheet metal part and create a flange, the bend radius is not coming in at the specified size.

 

In this case as you'll see the bend radius for .03" thick plate is to be .06"R, yet it comes in at .09"R.

I'm unable to find what is driving the .09R for the bend.

 

Note: If I change the material thickness to .01" thick, the bend comes in at the correct, specified size of .03"R

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Jim
Celtic Design Services, LLC

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https://www.facebook.com/pages/Celtic-Design-Services-LLC/184666001666426
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Message 4 of 28

I guess I've stumped everyone on this.

 

Anyone from Adesk able to chime in on this?

I'm sure it's something I'm doing wrong, would just like to know what it is.

 

I've done this many times in past releases, so I figured I knerw what I was doing....what's changed or is it possible my client has some application over-riding the settings I'm making???

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Jim
Celtic Design Services, LLC

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Message 5 of 28

OK,

 

I've created a style that sets the bend radiu to a specific thickness.

In this case as seen in the attachment I set the bend to .06"R for a thickness of .032".

 

Created a face and then a flange (thickness of the sheet is set to the .032", the resulting bend radius measures to .096".

 

Obviously there's some other parameter that is driving these besides the styles editor.

Am I correct in that thinking?

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Jim
Celtic Design Services, LLC

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Message 6 of 28

DUH!!!!

Found what's controlling all this.....good Lord.

 

OK, it's the Bend Radius setting in the Bend tab. It's defaulted to "Thickness * 3".

Now the question is.....how do I change this? It doesn't seem to allow for modification.

I need to get this setting to be driven by the custom equation specified in the Sheet Metal Unfold options.....but how?

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Jim
Celtic Design Services, LLC

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Message 7 of 28

Hi CelticDesignServices, 

Is it possible that what you're really wanting to do is to create a Bend Table rather than a custom equation?

 

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com


Message 8 of 28

Figured it out!

Looks like I need to manually edit that field and set it as a static size as opposed to tieing it to the "table" I editing/created in the Unfold menu.

 

Glad I could be of help to myself...;)

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Jim
Celtic Design Services, LLC

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Message 9 of 28

Curtis,

 

Thanks, I was thinking along those very lines myself.

I may just do that instead of my discovered way above.

 

Thanks

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Jim
Celtic Design Services, LLC

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Message 10 of 28

It would be nice to be able to do an external Bend Table, but users (especially us contractors, eventhough I'm the CAD Admin) are locked out of the Docs & Settings folder which is where the bend tables reside.

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Jim
Celtic Design Services, LLC

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Message 11 of 28

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.

 

Mike (not Matt) Rattray

Message 12 of 28

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?

 

 

 

                             

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Jim
Celtic Design Services, LLC

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Message 13 of 28

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.

Mike (not Matt) Rattray

Message 14 of 28

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.

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Jim
Celtic Design Services, LLC

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Message 15 of 28

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.

Mike (not Matt) Rattray

Message 16 of 28

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?

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Jim
Celtic Design Services, LLC

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Message 17 of 28

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.

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Jim
Celtic Design Services, LLC

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Message 18 of 28

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.

Mike (not Matt) Rattray

Message 19 of 28

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".

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Jim
Celtic Design Services, LLC

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Go raibh maith agat (in other words...Thank you!)
Message 20 of 28

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?)

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Jim
Celtic Design Services, LLC

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Go raibh maith agat (in other words...Thank you!)

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