CAD noob needs sheetmetal pointers

[Anonymous]

Hey all, I'm brand-new to CAD and find learning Fusion 360 to be really exciting. HOORAY FOR NATIVE MAC SUPPORT! In particular I really enjoy watching Lars Christensen's videos on YouTube.

I'd appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction for a couple of things I'm trying to accomplish with a piece of sheetmetal. I have the object built in Fusion but I don't know how to proceed. The videos I've found so far don't cover the actions I need to perform.

1) If my full (say, "unfolded") sheetmetal object is already designed and extruded as a single flat piece of metal, sans any defined fold points, how can I draw a line on the object and tell Fusion "I want this part of the object folded at X degrees at this line. Is that possible?

2) How can I create a 3-sided shape on the face of the sheetmetal and tell Fusion "I want the sheetmetal cut through along this line and then the entire piece folded outwards at X degrees at this line (line being the missing 4th side of the shape). Say I have a flat piece of sheetmetal and I want a V cut into it and bent outwards, like a coat hook on a wall. How would I do that?

If you can just point me to the specific tool/tools I would use in the software to do these two things, I can do some research on how those tools work. I just don't know where to look.

I understand I may have approached this from the wrong angle (pun), being a complete noob and all, but is it possible to perform these two actions with an existing sheetmetal object? I assume this is CAD 101 to most of you, but I really have not figured out how to do it.

[innovatenate]

1. That is a feature that is not currently in Fusion 360 (the ability to bend around a sketch line). Right now you're restricted to drawing the flat part of the sheet and then adding the flanges on the edges or creating a contour flange. A contour flange lets you sketch a "side" profile and quickly create multiple flanges simultaneously. 

2. There's more than one way to do things generally. Based on your description of what you're trying to accomplish I've made a short screencast that show how you might flatten and cut .... or you may cut through the folded part. If this isn't what you're looking for, can you attach an image of what you're trying to do?

Below is a video that may demonstrate some further features a bit better. You may want to watch through some of this video if you haven't yet.

Sheet Metal Deep Dive Video

I hope that helps!

[Anonymous]

innovatenate wrote:

1. That is a feature that is not currently in Fusion 360 (the ability to bend around a sketch line).

Bummer. Maybe someday.

innovatenate wrote:
2. There's more than one way to do things generally. Based on your description of what you're trying to accomplish I've made a short screencast that show how you might flatten and cut .... or you may cut through the folded part. If this isn't what you're looking for, can you attach an image of what you're trying to do?

Here's a simple example. Imagine a blank square of sheetmetal. I want to cut a 3" long 1" wide finger-shaped piece in the center of it and bend it outward at 45 degrees, like a coat hook, so I now have a plate I can mount to the wall with a hook sticking out of it. So the hook shape when sketched on the sheetmetal surface is not closed at the square end, but it bends along the imaginary line that would be its end. Does that make sense?

[innovatenate]

I think I'm getting it, but I'm pretty visual person so feel free to let me know if I'm missing something. Maybe like this?

Let me know if I'm getting warmer. 

[Anonymous]

Still not quite. Imagine taking a piece of cardboard and pushing your finger through it at an angle. You now have a piece of cardboard with a hole in it and a finger-shaped piece sticking out.

[innovatenate]

Getting warmer?

🙂

[Anonymous]

That’s it! So it appears you can’t just create your cut lines on the sheet and “push” the part out at an angle like would happen in manufacturing?

[Anonymous]

It looks like the process you used is what I need to do, but one thing remains unclear. The flange you made is not the same size as the cutout. How do I ensure that the flange is identical to the cutout? So when manufactured the shape would be cut through the sheet then the entire piece would be bent outwards. If the piece were to be bent back flat, there would be no gaps between the piece and the sheet.

Say this is my piece of sheetmetal. I draw a line on it, cut along that line, and push the entire shape out at a 45 degree angle. The approach you demonstrated doesn't seem to address it from that perspective. How do I do that?

[innovatenate · Accepted solution]

I'm not sure what type of metal forming equipment you're using to make this, but the sheet metal features mostly cater towards a press brake or a rolling machine. In which case you would laser or water jet a flat part out and then take to the press brake to be formed. 

In general, the sheet metal engine that makes it possible to flatten a part doesn't work well when the body will interfere with itself in the flattened state (or in the folded state). You can set the bend relief to control how much gap or what type of gap. In the below example, I leave a tiny .001 in gap and you can get pretty close. 

Does that help at all?

[Anonymous]

This is extremely helpful. Thank you so much!

[Anonymous]

Hey Nate, one more question based on your screen recording. How are you able to use your Shift key to control your navigation? Shift does nothing for me (I'm also on Mac) and in fact I was told in another forum post that there is currently no such functionality but I could submit a feature request.

Am I interpreting your recording wrong? Or am I just doing something stupid on my end?

[innovatenate]

Are you using the trackpad or what type of input device are you using? I tend to use the trackpad or a mouse. My favorite CAD input device is my SHhhh mouse because its super ninja when I'm recording screencast. 

On the mouse, I can press down the middle mouse button to pan, scroll wheel to zoom, and shift + middle mouse button to orbit. 

When using the trackpad, I can use two fingers to pan, pinch to zoom, and I hold shift + two fingers to orbit.

Below are the preferences for my trackpad. 

The "secondary click" in lower right corner is really nice to have too. 

I hope that helps!