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I would like to explore the possibility of developing flat patterns from 3D fusion shapes. Things like origami folds, sheet metal or panel construction, clothing patterns, boat hull development, sail design, and a myriad of other design activities involve wrapping flat surfaces around 3D shapes to approximate a form. This could open up Fusion to some users who do not traditionally utilize CAD tools. l wonder if this is a possibility?
Yeah, I used to use an add-in for Inventor that did this very thing. It had its purpose. It was a bit specialized, but came in handy. The developer no longer distributes this add-in for Inventor.
One of my thoughts is that Fusion is easy enough to learn that it might bring in a lot of non traditional CAD users, if they could see direct utility for something they want to do. Lots of things are made with flat patterns that are built into 3D shapes. Clothing, of course, but also many other things created from fabric or sheet goods, from boats to tents and other fabric/ sheet structures, outdoor equipment, the possibilities are pretty well endless. I know from boatbuilding that there are very sophisticated shapes being created by deforming flat panels over a very simple mold.
This seems as if it would be a variant of the process for creating polygons, but would need:
1) the ability to at least partially define seam locations
2) some kind of seam structure or allowance for instances where extra material would be needed
3) the ability to control the number of seams used to approximate the shape.
It seems to me this would open up a lot of new design possibilities.
As Keqing mentioned we have heard this before and I'm interested in pursuing it.
Have you seen any other CAD software products that have good flattening features either in their software or via a partner?
We are currently looking for partners for Fusion 360 so if you (or anyone else who is reading this) are aware of some good technology out there I'd love to know about it.
I don't know much about this personally, but TouchCad appears to have a good reputation and reviews, and seem to cover most of the features I mentioned for both Windows and OSX: http://www.touchcad.com/index_tc.html
This feature is something we have been considering for a future release (date TBD). Any other comments/ideas from the forum community would be appreciated.
Colin, since you asked. Sheet metal development is inevitably a part of every project. There is always the need of a mounting bracket with slots or holes for self tapping screws or some such. I find that even when I try to design a project without sheet metal to save weight or cost or the hassle of dealing with sheet metal shops there is always some piece that finds it's way into the mix where it is just easier and cheaper to have a part laser cut and press braked to solve an issue. Advanced CNC based sheet metal shops are among the most efficent digital manufacturing operation in existence. I see that trend only increasing in the future. I currently use SolidWorks for sheet metal because it works well (that wasn't always the case) and every sheet metal operation uses it. That said I would love to have sheet metal capability inside Fusion. I would also like to put a vote in for something similar to the flatten and smash commands in Rhino. I have found these to be very useful in many situations.
This is closely related to other ideas around the development of flat patterns. While sheet metal work is very common and necessary, I'd hope when this is implemented consideration will go to other related areas that depend on creating 3D shapes from flat materials. Fusion has the potential to attract a lot of use outside traditional CAD disciplines- fabric construction, for instance. Designing that solar inflatable aircraft, or the next generation of foldable, transportable shelter. Being able to use Fusion's organic shape creation tools and convert the results into buildable flat patterns would be brilliant.
I'm a current user of TouchCad and have quite some experience with it. It does its work, but is by no means ideal. Recently I have found a plugin for rhino and SD called ExactFlat (http://www.exactflat.com/) that seems to be the best I've seen so far. I highly recommend having a look to it. To me it'll be a dream to have the functionality of exactflat with the design power of Fusion.
I have a demo of the software mentioned this same afternoon, if I find anything interesting I'll let you know.
I believe there is a pretty big market for that sort of software, ranging from tents to tensile structures to kites, paragliders, fashion and shoe design, upholstery, sail design, composite patterning ... just to name a few of an endless list. I honestly believe you'll do well by implementing a good solution to that problem.
If my experience in designing 3d inflatable forms (mainly kites) can be of any help, here I am!
Oh and BTW, if you need ideas on what a user might expect from such a software and what to dream about (ie not yet feasible by any software right now) please do not hesitate to contact me 🙂
Even a command that allows one to unfold/flatten/smash the midsurface of a part drawn as sheet metal (constant thickness part) will already help a lot.
This implies that a midsurface tool is required, which could just be an extension of thicken/offset. It will also be very useful as a preprocessing tool for FEA work.
