topic Re: Fold/Unfold in Inventor Forum

Fold/Unfold

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 15:40:31 GMT

I am using inventor 2018

I am having issues when trying to fold my part. I have attached 2 different parts with 2 different issues.

Fold Part-1 - I need the part to be bent or "folded" down the center with with the radius and angle like that attached picture. When i try to do this it breaks my part into 2pc. Am i missing something?

Fold Part-2 - I have the part folded like i need but had to suppress features that are needed. How do i get the part bent or "folded" with these features?

thank you in advance for any and all help!

Re: Fold/Unfold

SBix26 — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 17:14:56 GMT

In both cases you're trying to use Inventor's sheet metal tools to create objects that involve deforming the sheet, stretching in more than one direction. Inventor's sheet metal tools are pretty much restricted to operations that can be done with a roll or press brake, the kinds of shapes that you could do with a piece of paper. Die forming operations, which you would need for these two models, are not supported in Inventor sheet metal.

These two parts can certainly be modeled in Inventor, but not with the sheet metal tools, and Inventor will be unable to create a flat pattern.

Side note: normally much better to create the finished shape of a part than to create the flat shape and fold it; not always, but mostly.

Sam B
Inventor Pro 2018.2.3 | Windows 7 SP1
LinkedIn

Re: Fold/Unfold

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 15:42:03 GMT

Thank you for your reply @SBix26

Would you recommend modeling this just as a 3D part then? I was doing it as a sheet metal part for the flat pattern.

Re: Fold/Unfold

TheCADWhisperer — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 17:17:49 GMT

Go ahead and model it as a standard part and then I can demonstrate how to get a Flat Pattern from the geometry.