Achieving tabs on a cylinder of sheet metal

[Anonymous]

Hi 

I am getting a cylinder of sheet metal rolled and welded along the join you see. This is 2mm aluminium. 

At the moment it is just modelled using the solids functionality because it was easy and will be fine to get manufactured from that. 

However I have realised I need to add a few tabs at the bottom of the cylinder as shown - again just done as a solid for now. But in this case I do need to be a bit careful with bend radii and cut outs etc. But I am at a loss as to how to get these done in the sheet metal module of Fusion 360. 

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I am at a loss as to how to get these done in the sheet metal module of Fusion 360. 

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Those are deformations going from arc to line.

Cannot be done in Fusion sheet metal.

[Anonymous]

That's a shame! I can picture so clearly how I would do this if I had a sheet of metal in front of me! It's a shame there's no neat way to make that in CAD easily. 

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@Anonymous wrote:

That's a shame! I can picture so clearly how I would do this if I had a sheet of metal in front of me! It's a shame there's no neat way to make that in CAD easily. 

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I didn’t say that.  You can use the standard modeling tools.  I wrote that you can’t use the sheet metal tools.  I will make significant wager that you can’t see the geometry in your mind nearly as clearly as you think you can.  Start modeling it using the standard modeling tools and let me know how it goes.

[Anonymous]

Ok yes - modelling something more or less correct in standard tools is trivial. I was hoping the sheet metal toolbox might give me a leg up on getting bend radii right and sizing the cutouts properly. 

I can work that out by hand as a back up though. 

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Ok yes - modelling something more or less correct in standard tools is trivial. 

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Let’s see your trivial solution.

[Anonymous]

The picture I posted in the original post illustrating what I wanted to do. Add some fillets to get the bend radii right and you've got something good enough a sheet metal supplier could manufacture it for you. 

Is it the right thing to do? No

Would it perfectly represent the geometry I would get at the end? No

Would I probably get what I want from a machinist? Yep

I can get away with this because my tolerances are loose, the part is lightly stressed, and I'm only making a one off that will then be assembled with the other parts by hand by a skilled technician. 

[Warmingup1953]

Certainly possible given your proposed Build method. I simply created 16mm Flats where the Tabs will be and filleted those to the "cylinder" and created a thickened Solid Body from the outer surface and converted that to a Sheetmetal Body and Flanged the Tabs