The attached part was derived as such:
I need to create a flat pattern of this part and for some reason Inventor is only wanting to flatten one of the three "prongs". In a perfect world, it would be nice to flatten the entire part so I could get the entire part shape cut.
I have tried:
If you have success with flattening the part please share your method!
Thank you
Just curious, but why was this created initially as a derived solid?
The part that this was originally created from was modified to be a fixture for that part. I didn't realize it at the time (and it was a customer supplied model) but the model did not have uniform thickness.
The only way (that I know of) to get the model of varying thickness to an exactly uniform thickness was to copy the surface that I needed from the original part, and then thicken that surface into a new solid. Of course, to try and unfold or flat pattern the part it had to be the only solid in the file, so I derived the new solid out of the original part model.
Sheet metal features must be planar, cylindrical or conic or created with the Lofted Flange tool.
You can check that those faces aren't planar by trying to start a new sketch on them.
This part will have to be created from scratch following the limitations given above.
Recreated using Inventor Sheet metal tools (dimensions are just estimated).
I'm on 2011 😞
I can try and recreate the part closely with the sheet metal tools, I just don't know that it will be accurate enough to get laser cut to use as a template because of the contours that prevent it from folding in the first place. I guess I'll see what I can do with it now that I know it won't unfold (and it wasn't something I was doing wrong or not doing).
@Anonymous wrote:I just don't know that it will be accurate enough
It looks to me that it could be modeled with out these twists and be exactly the same size as the part with these twisted. (the two arcs indicated are slightly off, but not enough to be concerned about)
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