double curves on sheet metal part

[terje.antonsen]

Hi,

The part in the attachment was made in catia. The main face is curved in two directions. In my language we call this a "double curved surface" this is possible to generate a flat pattern from in catia. Anyone been able to do this in inventor? Or have ideas?

[JDMather]

No.

You would need some add-in like AutoPOL (not an endorsment - I have never actually used this product).

You should be able to get a trial version of any add-in you might find.

[mrattray]

If you look on AutoPOL's website for thier unfolder tool you'll see that it actually doesn't support double curved surfaces.

From their FAQ:

  - Can I unfold formed parts, for example a sphere?

No, a sphere is a typical example of a double-curved part. No double curved features can be unfolded.

[terje.antonsen]

I actually found 3 potential candidate add-ins for unfolding double curves yesterday.

I tried one from solid3dtech http://solid3dtech.com/

It seems to do what I want, it unfolds some pretty crazy dummys I tested with, and gives a sketch that can be exported for lasercutting (with many polylines.)

 unfortunately, I am unable to check the accuracy of this one, as I can't see any spec for "accepted misaligment" .

Others I requested trials of were "spi gmbh", a german site with address".de" .

and one at www.forming.com