topic Re: Sheetmetal corner seam tool in Fusion Design, Validate & Document Forum

Sheetmetal corner seam tool

TravisJoe — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 18:47:19 GMT

Like in inventor, and other CAD packages, a good corner seam tool is needed for pulling sheetmetal edges together, especially when you are unable to plan or design them all at the same time.

I realize this is probably already in planning, but important to me and wanted to voice my need for this.

Re: Sheetmetal corner seam tool

DWhiteley — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 09:33:09 GMT

I agree with this post. The ability to create overlapped corners is important in any sheet metal tool.

Dave Whiteley

Envisage UK Ltd

Re: Sheetmetal corner seam tool

promm — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 23:40:51 GMT

@TravisJoe,

Can I ask you to step away from what other CAD tools do and focus on the problem that you are looking to solve. I agree that we need a tool pulling sheetmetal edges together. Here is a video of using press pull to modify sheet metal edges, along with using extrude.

http://autode.sk/2kxKUDs

Thoughts?

Mike Prom

Re: Sheetmetal corner seam tool

TravisJoe — Fri, 10 Feb 2017 00:04:18 GMT

@promm

That is fair to ask. You are correct that the extrude and push pull can accomplish most of what I am looking for with minimal extra steps.

I think the main thing missing is adding/modifying corner reliefs. For now I can do it old-school and make my own by flattening the part and adding my own, but I think this is can become tedious. In you screencast a couple of those corners would ideally be updated as well for reasons like gaps effecting welding.

As a welder, and somebody that designs sheetmetal for weldments, I often change corner seam styles to best suit the materials, process and joints. This is much easier when it is a single feature. This would be my second reasoning for wanting this tool.

I do not think this is necessary to have immediately, but I would personally say it should be part of the core sheetmetal tools. I hope that helps explain what I am looking for.

Re: Sheetmetal corner seam tool

promm — Fri, 10 Feb 2017 00:10:54 GMT

@TravisJoe,

Fair enough, would having individual flange overrides for corner reliefs as a part of the flange tool be a acceptable solution?

Cheers,

Mike Prom

Re: Sheetmetal corner seam tool

DWhiteley — Fri, 10 Feb 2017 08:17:00 GMT

I would agree with this.

Regards

Dave

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

Re: Sheetmetal corner seam tool

TravisJoe — Fri, 10 Feb 2017 22:50:02 GMT

@promm

I am not sure if your suggestion would accomplish what I am looking for. I guess I am having trouble visualizing the workflow you are suggesting.

What I am going to todo is remake some parts from past designs which I used this tool. This way I can better show what I am looking for and get a better idea on how much this effects my design workflow currently.

Re: Sheetmetal corner seam tool

TravisJoe — Sun, 12 Feb 2017 17:18:43 GMT

Just wanted to give a better example of where this would fit into my work flow.

Here is a basic example of a part I have made in the past. I made a rectangle base flange, fold up the tow short ends (different lengths) then fold up the sides (same length). The corners reliefs are good but there is gaps on the corner seams. Now if my goal is just to fill the gaps @promm suggestions work perfect and with the same effort as using a corner seam tool. But what I sometimes run into is changing the design slightly for manufacturability.

For example, if the part is stainless and it is to be welded I would likely want a tight corner (simple to do) and just fuse weld it. But if it is mild steel often I want to add a little filler and might want a partial overlap seam. But with Aluminum, I will want a corner to corner. This is where being able to quickly change some feature parameters becomes very useful. The added benefit is you override corner reliefs based on the seam.

Re: Sheetmetal corner seam tool

cekuhnen — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 13:16:36 GMT

@promm

with a simple design a manual fix I think will do it - with a more complex design this might add extra complexity to the timeline

and feature structure. Ideally it would be great if the SM tool can do this as a build in function

Re: Sheetmetal corner seam tool

promm — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 19:36:40 GMT

@TravisJoe,

If you could edit the flange and there is an option to override the corner relief, would there still be a need for an additional button?

Regards,

Mike Prom

Re: Sheetmetal corner seam tool

TravisJoe — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 20:55:59 GMT

I honestly do not think the corner relief override would be helpful in this situation. The corner relief changes would need to reflect the manual edits to the flange after creation, and could not be calculated before the edits.

There are three main things I feel this tool does. Choose the corner style, choose the seam gap, and update/create the corner relief. This is all done in a single easily editable feature.

I do think the override rules would be helpful for other situations.

I apologize for my stubbornness, but this is a tool I have been using reasonably frequently in sheetmetal for years, and do not see a descent workflow to take its place, so I feel it should be in the roadmap of sheetmetal in Fusion.

Re: Sheetmetal corner seam tool

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 04:01:40 GMT

The video shown my Mike Promm has not guide about how to close the corners and how to overlap the edges with each other to seam them, especially thinner sheets do not require any corner relief in some products like furniture and also the edge overlap is more important for that.

Very simple question is how to overlap the edges as we need to bend them on CNC panel bender machine and need to have exact bending axis in position to get the overlap joint after bending.

Also the corner should not have any special profile, it should be straight with no relief.

Solution expected at earliest

how to close the corner gap and how to overlap the edgehow to avoid corner V cut in flat pattern

Re: Sheetmetal corner seam tool

TravisJoe — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 04:20:53 GMT

Hello,

I am a little disappointed that this has not been addressed yet. I would consider a corner tool as part of a core sheetmetal package. It does seem like Sheetmetal has not had much attention sense the it finally became usable.

For now my only trick is starting a sketch on the edge and extrude it using "TO" to make sure it remains parametric. See images.

Re: Sheetmetal corner seam tool

FoldedMetal — Sun, 24 Jan 2021 21:26:47 GMT

I agree, this topic came up almost 4 years ago. It is a vital part of the sheet metal process and needs. To not have a solution to this issue makes this software more like a toy than a "Real" CAD package. I have just recently purchasea a year subscrition to Fusion 360 and now feel I need to keep looking to find a software package that will fit my needs. I only process sheet metal, and use a fiber laser to cut it and a CNC break to bend it. Having loose sloppy corners is not acceptable, and having to manually adjust every corner is time consuming and not acceptable.

Re: Sheetmetal corner seam tool

TomaszStaniszewski — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 12:51:58 GMT

Hi Jeff, did you find a good solution for your issue in fusion 360 or other software? Im in the same place right now as you were.

Re: Sheetmetal corner seam tool

TheCADWhisperer — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 15:52:35 GMT

@TomaszStaniszewski wrote:
….or other software?

Autodesk Inventor Professional.

Re: Sheetmetal corner seam tool

davidSWEUU — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 17:01:39 GMT

I agree. I am always trying to modify the corner reliefs and overlaps for the forming and welding processes. I realize that Fusion uses textbook information to determine the basics, but in reality half laps and smaller than bend line notches for thin material should be an option. I hate that the notch reliefs cannot be 0 without breaking the unbend and flat pattern tools.

David.

Re: Sheetmetal corner seam tool

TomaszStaniszewski — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 17:51:03 GMT

I am looking for a solution for production specializing in sheet metal bending. Correct corner management is the key.

Re: Sheetmetal corner seam tool

philwmcintosh — Sat, 01 Jan 2022 02:16:10 GMT

I can't believe it. This thread was started at the beginning of 2017 and now 5 years later in 2022 it still hasn't been addressed/solved? I'm no sheet metal specialist but this is a pretty basic request. I know what I need and it's nothing special so to use some comments copied from above which I totally agree with: "Correct corner management is the key" and "To not have a solution to this issue (after 5 years requesting it) makes this software more like a toy than a "Real" CAD package" and "Having loose sloppy corners is not acceptable, and having to manually adjust every corner is time consuming and not acceptable"

Re: Sheetmetal corner seam tool

TravisJoe — Sun, 02 Jan 2022 22:01:36 GMT

In the expert elite discussions I still raise the issues that Sheetmetal feel neglected and slow to reach industry expectations. It is part of my frustration that makers and hobbyist might have enough, but I need to be able to compete with mainstream tools, otherwise the cost savings of Fusion is not realized. As a professional it does not take too many hours to make up the difference between Inventor and Fusion if there is enough work that is slowed down because of lack of capability.

Hopefully after the holidays I can get back to annoying the Autodesk people about this concern among others.