Inventor punch tools

[swordmaster]

Guys,

We predominately plasma cut our  flat pattern sheetmetal parts .

So I would have a folded sheetmetal part modeled as a face with flanges added. Then add cutouts to the folded part . Final step is create the flat pattern and a drawing. 

I now have a requirement to use a punch machine for the cut outs in the flat pattern.

Goal is to add a identifier for the punch tool  used  and export this identifierAND the X,Y coordinates of the punch tool from a origin point on the flat pattern. This information needs to be written to a txt file.

I should add this is all without producing a drawing.

So my initial questions are:

Are Inventor punch tools the way to go to achieve this?

Can i export the coordinates of the punch from the Inventor model to a text file?

How to set the origin point for the XY coordinates?

How to control the orientation of the flat pattern

Any help and/or recommendations on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated

thanks in advance

[adam.nagy]

Hi,

It's up to you how you want to create the holes in the model, whether through a punch tool or otherwise.

What are your concerns?

Punch is an iFeature whose position is controlled by a sketchpoint. You should be able to get that back through the API and then get the distance between that and some other point in the model and then export it programmatically.

Not sure what exactly the flat pattern orientation means. Where would it have an effect? Can you provide more details on what you need?

Cheers,