help with unfolding a 3D shape

[Anonymous]

I have a 3D solid that I need unfolded. It's basically a 'U' shape but it's
tilted and cut in an arc on the top. Anyway, this is a one-time project and
I don't want to buy an expensive piece of unfolding software. I got a demo
version of some kind of sheet metal unfolder (ProFold) but couldn't figure
it out.

Is there some simple way to do this. If I could just explode the solid down
to regions and unfold the back side of the 'U' that's all I need.

Thanks,

--
Richard Chalmers
Design Engineer, Weatherend Estate Furniture
rchalmers@weatherend.com
www.weatherend.com

[Anonymous]

On Wed, 14 Aug 2002 11:57:30 -0700, "Richard Chalmers"
wrote:

>I have a 3D solid that I need unfolded. It's basically a 'U' shape but it's
>tilted and cut in an arc on the top. Anyway, this is a one-time project and
>I don't want to buy an expensive piece of unfolding software.

There are manual methods of doing the unfolded pattern. Any good
manual drafting book should give you the basics.

Joe Dunfee

[Anonymous]

Try out my unfolding program for any 3d-surface area.
DEMO-download from
www.black-cad.de
good luck
Jochen

Richard Chalmers schrieb:
>
> I have a 3D solid that I need unfolded. It's basically a 'U' shape but it's
> tilted and cut in an arc on the top. Anyway, this is a one-time project and
> I don't want to buy an expensive piece of unfolding software. I got a demo
> version of some kind of sheet metal unfolder (ProFold) but couldn't figure
> it out.
>
> Is there some simple way to do this. If I could just explode the solid down
> to regions and unfold the back side of the 'U' that's all I need.
>
> Thanks,
>
> --
> Richard Chalmers
> Design Engineer, Weatherend Estate Furniture
> rchalmers@weatherend.com
> www.weatherend.com

[Anonymous]

For unfolding General 3d-surface areas you can try out my program BREUEL. You can get the DEMO-download from www.black-cad.de
Regards
Jochen

[Anonymous]

Here's the hard way: Draw the outline of each face as a polyline and rotate them to the "world" (2D) plane.

Ooops! Anyone check the date of this post?????
Message was edited by: teiarch

[Anonymous]

Yeah- that's strange, it shows up in the discussion index as yesterday's date though. Another `maybe-not-quite-as-hard' way would be to copy the faces of the solid, and use 3dAlign to orient them correctly on a plane. That's how I've done it, and it works pretty ok.

[Anonymous]

You don't suppose Jochen is pushing an old thread up to the top to plug a new product he has developed and is selling. I haven't seen any other company plug their own products here as blatantly as www.black-cad.de
Funny thing is I don't remember anyone else here giving a referral to that site.
How about it, what is the experience of anyone who has done business with the products on that site?
J.D.

[Anonymous]

Well, if he's doing that, I guess it's a little sneaky, but I don't have a real issue with it myself. There are a few guys who seem to search these threads to look for customers, but one or 2 of them (I'm not mentioning names) are also pretty smart and have been helpful with answers that didn't sell their products (I think they do that to show that they're willing to just be helpful for now, and hopefully you'll remember them and their product line favorably in the future - which, to me, is just good business). HOWEVER, if there get to be too many of the purely solicitous messages, then maybe it's time to harangue them a bit, and maybe embarrass them into quitting it for a while.