topic Re: problem creating flat pattern in Fusion Support Forum

problem creating flat pattern

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 13:09:34 GMT

Hi There, I'm new to Fusion 360 and came across a problem in making a sheetmetal product.

For some components in my design I'm not able to make a flat pattern and for some of them I am able to. I can't figure out why some of them don't work. I got the following message: Error: FlatPatternAlign1(FlatPattern1)
Compute Failed. I tried changing the the sheetmetal rules, tried various stationary faces and rebuilding the document. But it still appears a bit random to me.

I included some screenshots of the different parts that do work and parts that don't work. the first two examples are build up almost exactly the same and one of them works and the other does't.

Can anybody help me?

Re: problem creating flat pattern

TheCADWhisperer — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 13:31:11 GMT

Can you File>Export your *.f3d file to your local drive and then Attach it here to a Reply?

Re: problem creating flat pattern

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 13:48:03 GMT

Thanks for the quick reply. I attached the file in this post.

The flatpatten works for the bottom and doesn't work for the other components.

Re: problem creating flat pattern

TheCADWhisperer — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 14:13:15 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
The flat pattern works for the bottom and doesn't work for the other components.

The bottom is not modeled correctly. Edges of flat should be perpendicular to the flat... ...check in wireframe visual style.

I will have to start over from scratch when (if?) I find the time with no guarantee that Fusion will model this. Might require Autodesk Inventor Professional for this geometry.

Edit: I am intrigued - it looks like this might be solvable in Fusion 360 - but will require a different modeling approach.

This is no good - not proper technique...

Re: problem creating flat pattern

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 15:08:13 GMT

Thanks for your reply CADWhisperer!

Would be really nice if it can be solved. This is one of my first projects in fusion and it's a bit disappointing that it doesn't work..

Wat is the other approach you think that will work? I don't really get what's wrong about the bottom part, I've made a printout and bend it and it looks exactly like in the CAD model.

This cut function would more be a Rhino approach I guess.. This in one of the CAD programs I used to work in. But good to know that the combine function is not a preferred way to cut things.

Re: problem creating flat pattern

TheCADWhisperer — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 15:17:45 GMT

Click on the first image that I posted to enlarge.

Look in the areas of the red circles.

There should be single line curves in those areas - not double lines.

This can often be ignored if tolerances are not tight, but is not technically correct.

Re: problem creating flat pattern

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 15:27:33 GMT

Now I get what you mean. I thought this could be useful to make a 5 axis cutting template out of in the future..

I now made it with a slightly different approach to get rid of them. First make a surface, cut the edges, thicken and convert it to a sheet metal part. But still I get the same problem on the top and I'm not able to make a dxf from it.

What approach do you have in mind?

Re: problem creating flat pattern

TheCADWhisperer — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 15:46:11 GMT

For whatever it is worth - check the Attached.

Re: problem creating flat pattern

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 07:49:54 GMT

This doesn't work as well..

Does anyone have an idea why this doesn't work? It's a relatively simple flange with the sides cut off, shouldn't be that difficult right? What is going wrong?

Re: problem creating flat pattern

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 08:29:26 GMT

Here is an other version of the back plate. Made with the two way I could come up with;

first one;

- stared with a surface

- thickened to the desired thickness

- converted into sheet metal

- create flat pattern --> fails and isn't even able to put it plat, see picture 1

second one;

- making a flange from the sketch where the previous surface was build up from.

- cutting the edges from the flange to get the desired shape

- create a flat pattern --> I get an error here and I'm not able to export to dxf but it is able to lay the model flat, see picture 2

Those are the most simple ways I can come up with. I really need this flat patterns and it's quit frustrating that this function doesn't seem to work.

Re: problem creating flat pattern

davebYYPCU — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 09:02:42 GMT

Two things that stand out,

Sketch 6 has splines, that are not tangent to the flat portion.

When the second Flat Pattern is produced it has Edge error, where you have said,

- cutting the edges from the flange to get the desired shape

Both of these conditions are not helping.

Till the whisperer catches up...

Re: problem creating flat pattern

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 09:21:34 GMT

After a little break and remodelling the drawing with your tips in mind I'm now able to get a flat pattern for every part and a better understanding about what makes the errors. Thanks for that!

Now I have an other challenge I'm facing. I want to bring the solid body of the flat pattern over to the CAM environment for cnc milling, is this possible?

Re: problem creating flat pattern

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 10:18:49 GMT

Found the solution! It works with the Insert Derive function.

Re: problem creating flat pattern

jagSJMV8 — Thu, 03 Mar 2022 19:24:40 GMT

We have a relatively simple panel with a R100mm curve where we want a 5mm bend to stiffen the panel. We have not been able to draw the bend in the sheet metal tab but have had to resort to closing it with the sweep command.

When we close the gap we cannot produce a flat pattern.

How do we design say a panel with a 15 degree soft bend (r100)in x direction and a 5mm in ward bend. We have tried both via export to step and reimport but to no avail!