topic Re: Unable to unfold: Won't let me select part to unfold in Fusion Design, Validate & Document Forum

Unable to unfold: Won't let me select part to unfold

pranv — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 18:02:14 GMT

Greetings everyone!

I am trying to unfold a tab and make a flat (single plane) part of a part. Unfortunately it is not letting me select the bends to unfold. The whole part goes transparent when i click on unfold and it won't let me select "stationary entity" as well.

I tried doing this on Inventor as well and was not able to select bends. Inventor selects the whole part as stationary entity.

The final goal of doing this is to get a 2D of the entire part - Not projection.

Please see file attached.

Re: Unable to unfold: Won't let me select part to unfold

jhackney1972 — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 18:42:27 GMT

STEP files will not unfold. If this is your model, that is the reason. If this is just your export for the Forum, please attach your F3D model. If you do not know how to attach your Fusion 360 model follow these easy steps. Open the model in Fusion 360, select the File menu, then Export and save as a F3D or F3Z file to your hard drive. Then use the Attachments section, of a forum post, to attach it.

Re: Unable to unfold: Won't let me select part to unfold

pranv — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 18:53:20 GMT

Hello @jhackney1972 !

I just uploaded a f3d file. I hope this works. Please let me know if there is still some issue.

Re: Unable to unfold: Won't let me select part to unfold

jhackney1972 — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 19:03:08 GMT

The bend, on the edge of the largest face, is overlapping the cross bend and it will not unfold. The other two will as shown in the video.

Edit: added model

(view in My Videos)

Re: Unable to unfold: Won't let me select part to unfold

Warmingup1953 — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 19:10:24 GMT

I'm having a few issues but it looks like even though the Body converts OK to Sheet Metal body there is some geometry issues...Did you create this in Fusion 360 as a Solid Body?

Re: Unable to unfold: Won't let me select part to unfold

pranv — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 19:14:29 GMT

@jhackney1972Thank you for the video and your efforts. It is unfortunate that I can't do it without altering the CAD file.

My end goal is to get a 2D flat design of the part. Something like the attached screenshot. Is there any way I can get that without unfolding the part?

For the attached screenshot, I have used the bottom (concave side) as flatten geometry. If i use the top (convex side) to flatten geometry, then I get a slightly smaller part profile. I am not sure what is true profile.

Re: Unable to unfold: Won't let me select part to unfold

pranv — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 19:15:56 GMT

@Warmingup1953Hello!

I did not create this body. I believe this was created in CATIA or Solidworks.

Re: Unable to unfold: Won't let me select part to unfold

jhackney1972 — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 19:37:10 GMT

I do not know of a way to achieve what you are asking for from this model.

Re: Unable to unfold: Won't let me select part to unfold

Warmingup1953 — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 19:50:15 GMT

My attempt (failed) was to create a Surface body and try and get the bend rules correct...I'll investigate further but it doest look too hard to re do in Fusion 360 which may be a better way

Re: Unable to unfold: Won't let me select part to unfold

laughingcreek — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 19:55:42 GMT

as has been mentioned, those bends that overlap are causing the problem. rebuild with smaller radius will allow it to work. attached is a workflow to rebuild. you can see it is pretty easy. you can adjust the value of the parameter "radius" in the parameter table up if you want to get that bend to be the largest possible without failing.

Re: Unable to unfold: Won't let me select part to unfold

pranv — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 20:19:22 GMT

@laughingcreek @Warmingup1953 @jhackney1972

Thanks to your inputs I was finally able to unfold the whole thing.

The part thickness is 4mm, so I made a 2mm offset surface of the part, in the direction of the part. I converted this surface into sheet metal of 4mm thickness but ignored the intersecting bend.
Then folded the entire part. Once I get a dwg of this, i'll redraw this rectangle in.

I highly appreciate your efforts and thanks a lot for guiding me!