topic Re: Curved sheet metal and tabs in Inventor Forum

Curved sheet metal and tabs

blandb — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 21:46:54 GMT

I am kind of running my head against the wall here. I am mentally blocking. I am trying to make a component as shown below and get a flat pattern, and I know that since the bends are non-linear, I feel that is going to cause all the issues here. So, I assume, that I will have to utilize the "unwrap" command for this, and just pictorially show it? I know that The guy who sketched this up has it all laid out perfectly with hand drawn flat, but then it is still someone cumbersome to try and fold.

Any Ideas?

Re: Curved sheet metal and tabs

swalton — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 21:56:20 GMT

Does a Contour Roll work?

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/inventor/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2023/ENU/Inventor-Help/files/GUID-9BE8A495-5AFE-45A7-BDAF-11455A8BFBB9-htm.html

Make a Contour Roll with a full flange, then unfold twice, trim the flange to make the tabs, and refold twice.

I can't tell if the main curve is round or elliptical from your picture.

How about a Lofted Flange?

https://help.autodesk.com/view/INVNTOR/2023/ENU/?guid=GUID-0B863F74-2F5A-4AED-BC63-035CEDAE5A77

Re: Curved sheet metal and tabs

blandb — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 22:06:29 GMT

I spaced out the fact of trimming away to keep the tabs, good thought, I had blinders on and was just focusing on how to only add the tabs. Maybe I'm over complicating this?

Re: Curved sheet metal and tabs

Frederick_Law — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 22:06:31 GMT

If it'll be laser cut, don't kill yourself. Anything will work.

If it gonna be punched, make sure 90 deg on the tabs.

Sometime I make another part for the real flat.

Re: Curved sheet metal and tabs

kacper.suchomski — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 22:11:14 GMT

Look this

Re: Curved sheet metal and tabs

blandb — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 22:21:50 GMT

Thanks for the attempt, but they want the tabs to be flush with the end, not protruding. Also, that version will not flatten either. Unwrap works though.

Re: Curved sheet metal and tabs

IgorMir — Thu, 02 Feb 2023 00:55:57 GMT

Here are some ideas. Would that work for you? Files are in IV2020 format.

Cheers,

Igor.

Re: Curved sheet metal and tabs

johnsonshiue — Thu, 02 Feb 2023 01:36:59 GMT

Hi Brad,

Igor's Part2.ipt was the solution I had in mind. It is a bit tricky to model. As I mentioned before, Inventor does not officially support tabs on curvy edges. Also, the solution looks nice, if you measure the tab edges, you will see they are not parallel.

Many thanks!

Re: Curved sheet metal and tabs

IgorMir — Thu, 02 Feb 2023 02:29:30 GMT

Hi Johnson,

Yes, indeed. I have overlooked it.
There is a way to combat it. iPart comes to the rescue. Granted - in this case it is just to combat the limitation of inventor rather then contributing to the design workflow.
The attached part shows the technique. First child is used for the creating of Flat Pattern. And the second one can be used in drawing.

On a side note - the design like that usually is not calling for super high precision. I would think - even the first child should be sufficient for describing the design intent in the drawing. But just in case if the tabs must show parallelism - the second child can be used for creating drawing's views.

Cheers,

Igor.

@johnsonshiue wrote:

Hi Brad,

Igor's Part2.ipt was the solution I had in mind. It is a bit tricky to model. As I mentioned before, Inventor does not officially support tabs on curvy edges. Also, the solution looks nice, if you measure the tab edges, you will see they are not parallel.

Many thanks!

Re: Curved sheet metal and tabs

blandb — Thu, 02 Feb 2023 14:01:40 GMT

Thanks to all. I had originally was looking into the contour rolled version, but had seemed to space out the second unfold for some reason. Thanks for the slap in the face!! lol.

Re: Curved sheet metal and tabs

IgorMir — Fri, 03 Feb 2023 00:08:09 GMT

Morning Brad,

I didn't like the extra lines on tabs in my previously sent model. Just in case someone else will want to have a look at it - here is an updated file. It looks a touch neater, I think.

Cheers,

Igor.

@blandb wrote:

Thanks to all. I had originally was looking into the contour rolled version, but had seemed to space out the second unfold for some reason. Thanks for the slap in the face!! lol.

Re: Curved sheet metal and tabs

blandb — Fri, 03 Feb 2023 00:10:33 GMT

For what it is, I'm fine with the folded model "tapering" the tabs because the flat will show it as square. Thanks for looking into it.