Twisted sheetmetal- is it possible?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know if its possilbe in Inventor to twist a sheetmetal part? Or to make a flat pattern of a twisted shape?

[Curtis_Waguespack]

---

@abobyrius wrote:

...this is an architecturial intent to be made out of solid piece of copper.

---

Hi @abobyrius,

 I would think that the part modeled without the twist would give you a flat pattern accurate enough for your manufacturing needs.  So you could likely just create a twisted version for use in the assembly, and an untwisted version for figuring out the flat pattern.

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

Edit: attached is an example file created with Inventor 2017 using the sheet metal tools

[kelly.young · Accepted solution]

@abobyrius you have gotten some pretty good information about the limitations and expectations of the sheet metal environment. If you really want the flat pattern for your copper piece this is how I would go about it:

• Create an individual face that will flat pattern, not the whole part. Easiest way is loft surface, thicken.
• Export the flat pattern as .dxf.
• Create 2D Sketch, import CAD, clean up drawing lines and close loops - tinkering needed here.
• Extrude that single face
• Add your flange length. This will be an estimation as your bend allowance etc will be off.
• Add the top mid bar with center point to make an axis on.
• Rotate pattern along this axis.
• Should get you close to your desired shape for the bendable copper.

Not perfect, but if you make a temp piece, trim, re-document, you should get a repeatable process.

Hope that helps!

Please select the Accept as Solution button if a post solves your issue or answers your question.

[S_May]