Irregular shaped sheet metal flanges

[infoN5FWP]

I was just wondering if anyone has an easy way to add flanges to a sheet metal part that aren't rectangular.

I used to use solidworks and it had a convert to sheet metal tool where you could select a bunch of adjoining faces and it would thicken them into Sheetmetal and join them with bends. 

Ive attached an example model. Does anyone have a way to build a sheet metal part that joins multiple faces together?

Solidworks would also allow you to edit the sketch of an edge flange. this was really handy for creating miters in multi part sheet metal assemblies etc. the only way ive found to do this in fusion360 is to create a new sketch on the new edge flange and use extrude to cut or ad material. does anyone have a better way of doing this?

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@infoN5FWP wrote:

I used to use solidworks and it had a convert to sheet metal tool....

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Fusion 360 has a Convert to Sheet Metal tool.

First thing I notice is that your Sketch1 has impossible to manufacture dimensions.

Then I notice in Sketch2 that there are no dimensions.

In SolidWorks (and Fusion 360) we normally fully define our sketches.

Then I notice violations of the 4 rules of sheet metal (that are also used in SolidWorks).

No Bends, no Rips, not uniform Thickness?

[infoN5FWP]

Yeah, its just an example I threw together to demonstrate what I am trying to achieve, so I didn't bother dimensioning it too much. this isn't the actual part I'm trying to manufacture. 

solid works allows you to select faces on a solid to act as sketches for sheet metal flanges and then choose which edges become rips and which become folds.

I understand that you cant do this in fusion360 but I'm trying to find an efficient workflow to achieve a similar result.

would you thicken the surfaces and then add fillets to achieve the uniform thickness? 

[TheCADWhisperer · Accepted solution]

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@infoN5FWP wrote:

solid works allows you to ...

would you thicken the surfaces and then add fillets to achieve the uniform thickness? 

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I have been a CSWP for 15 years - I know how SolidWorks does sheet metal.

No.  I would add the Fillets (for Bends) before Thicken...

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp5izJt_zvN29W2cEFHAK949eImc9xFOT

[infoN5FWP]

Thanks for your help mate 🙂

yeah that hybrid sheet metal project video is the workflow I was searching for.

I guess never really thought about what the sheet metal tools where doing for me automatically in SW in terms of fillets. huge break through!

thanks for sharing your knowledge