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Flatten 3D geometry

10 REPLIES 10
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Message 1 of 11
George2012
2563 Views, 10 Replies

Flatten 3D geometry

I am very new to inventor fusion (actually I am evaluating it right now to provide feedback), I am wondering if I have a 3D geometry and want to flatten it, could it be done by Inventor Fusion or not.

If it is doable, could you explain how?

 

Thx.

10 REPLIES 10
Message 2 of 11
frankwu
in reply to: George2012

Please post an image of what you are trying to do.  That will make it easier to comment.

 

Depending on what you object is, perhaps you can (1) switch the view so it looks flat (clicking the faces of the cube in the upper right hand corner to rotate your object), and then (2) create a new plane, (3) use line tool to trace over the silhouette of the object, and then (4) PATCH the silhouette (one of the SURFACE commands), so you fill the trace so that it's a flat piece (no thickness)?

 

Or do you want thickness?  (So, say, a house a squashed down to a silhouette of a house that is, say, 1 mm thick?)  I've never done this and I'm not at my computer that has inventor fusion on it, but perhaps you could (1) select the object and (2) EXTRUDE the object (a command under SOLID) (I'm not sure you can do this with your object) to create a really long extruded object and then (3) create a plane which is parallel to the EXTRUDED object but some distance away; (4) on this new plane, create two rectangles with a gutter 1 mm wide between them, (5) use EXTRUDE again (under SOLID not SURFACE), set it to CUT, and then select two rectangles and EXTRUDE through your really long extruded object, thus leaving a silhouette 1 mm thick. 

 

Again, I'm not at my computer with IF on it, but if step (2) doesn't work (EXTRUDE to create a really long version of your object), I wonder if you can select your object with the SCALE command.  There is a button on SCALE (I forget what it's called) that either (a) gives you one arrow, meaning that you are scaling the entire object in all 3 dimensions simultaneously (e.g., making a sphere into a bigger sphere); or, if clicked, (b) gives you three arrows that let you scale in only one dimension - so you can pull an object and make it longer but not taller (e.g., you can pull on a short cylinder and make it longer, but not increase the diameter).

 

Hope that helps.


Frank

Message 3 of 11
George2012
in reply to: frankwu

Thanks for your reply, I have attached two view from the typical part that will be flatten.  The files that I will be getting could be in .prt, .stp or catia files.

 

Thx

Message 4 of 11
frankwu
in reply to: George2012

Hey!  No idea if you're still working on this problem or not, but here's how I would do it.  

Also - that is a very cool shape.  What is it?  Nice curves, though.

Message 5 of 11
George2012
in reply to: George2012

Thank you very much.

Message 6 of 11
George2012
in reply to: George2012

 

I wanted to send an actual file, but could not due to size limitations.  What software are you using, I could not find the commands you referred to in your attached file ( I am looking in Autodesk Inventor Fusion and Autodesk Inventor and could not find the commands).

Message 7 of 11
frankwu
in reply to: George2012

I was using Inventor Fusion for Mac.  SCALE is under the menu MODIFY (when the toggle on the far left is set to SOLID rather than SURFACE).  EXTRUDE is the top item in the menu to the immediate left of MODIFY (I forget what it's called and I don't have Inventor Fusion on my computer here at my dayjob).  Hope that helps.

Message 8 of 11
frankwu
in reply to: frankwu

EXTRUDE is the top command in the pull down menu SOLID (between the pull-down menus SKETCH and MODIFY).

Message 9 of 11
George2012
in reply to: George2012

I can not find a Modify pull down menus, maybe the version I am using.

Message 10 of 11
frankwu
in reply to: George2012

Yeah, you're using a different version, 2013, than I am (Inventor Fusion for Mac).

 

I suspect that maybe under CONSTRAIN AND DIMENSION?

 

It may just be a matter of going through every menu and pulling it down until you see something called SCALE.

Message 11 of 11
JDMather
in reply to: George2012

You need full Inventor rather then free Inventor Fusion to get flat patterns.

I'm not sure from that picture if even full Inventor will flatten that part.

Attach the file here.


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