Flat Pattern Part Number

[AlessandroZap]

Hi Everyone,

I think it would be useful if the flat pattern of a sheet metal body would automatically inherit the part number of the component it belongs to.

I always insert flat patterns in my drawings and in my templates, there is a field for part number. If I want it to appear correctly on the drawing sheet I have to insert this information manually for each flat pattern in the properties tab in design workspace.

Hope someone would be interested in this feature.

Thanks,

AZ

[jhackney1972]

It is a bit of extra clicks but if you place the sheet metal model in the drawing and either leave it or remove it, the part number will propagate your title block.  If you update the part number in the model, even if the model view does not appear in the existing drawing, the part number will update.

[AlessandroZap]

Thanks @jhackney1972 for your reply.

Yes, I'm aware of that. I was trying to suggest a feature for future releases. By the way it seemed quite logic to me that a flat pattern would inherit properties from the component it depends on.

Today, in an assembly with 30 sheet metal components, whose properties I have already populated, I still have to open the related flat patterns one by one in the design workspace and fill the part number field in the properties tab to have it showed in my drawing. It's not very time-saving workflow.

Maybe you can tag someone in charge of receiving this kind of suggestion?

@Phil.E ?

[Phil.E · Accepted solution]

@AlessandroZap Good suggestion. The data should be connected and this sounds like it takes a lot of time. Logged improvement FUS-173762.

[thomasDTVML]

Hello, 

I note that now the flat pattern does inherit the part number of the pressed part. This is terrible and is causing us no end of grief. 

A flat pattern is not physically the same as the pressed part so should not share the part number.  Hold a flat piece of metal in your hand. Is it the same shape size as a pressed part? Does it share the same symmetry properties as a flat part? NO. Therefore it gets a different part number because it is a completely different thing.

How Autodesk have let this slip currently baffles me. 

[Phil.E]

Hi, thanks for the feedback.

How did you give flat patterns their own part numbers, before this change?

[thomasDTVML]

Hi, 

You could alter the part number in the "properties" dialogue box when the flat pattern is activated. 

The fundamental problem here is that Autodesk has assumed/determined that 2 things (flat pattern and pressed part) are the same thing, when physically in a wide range of properties they are not. You cannot have a components that are different shapes (compare the bounding box dimensions of a pressed part and flat profile they are always going to be different) to one another classified under the same part number. 

Different shapes is the major determinant as to why the part number should be different between flat pattern and pressed part but also imagine a handed/ mirrored pressing. The flat pattern may be the same, but from that flat pattern you can press two different types of pressed component. It's worth noting that we don't but it does sort of highlight another reason to have the flat pattern as a different part number. 

Finally it has massive implications for historical data that is going to get wiped out. We have circa 5000 flat pattern part numbers that will be wiped out with no option on how to recover them or more importantly relate them to the flat patterns in both the modelling environment and the drawing environment. This is a massive ball ache and to have the option of how we have been doing it taken away seems unfair. 

P.s a really good way to highlight this is to produce a drawing of a pressed part, add a part list to the drawing sheet this will show the part number. Now produce a new sheet or drawing of the flat pattern of said part and add a parts list to that drawing. Under the latest update of fusion the part number will be the same. Now compare the drawing of each part. Are they remotely the same in any way? 

[Phil.E]

(Ticket logged: FUS-196703) 

Can you explain what this means? 

"We have circa 5000 flat pattern part numbers that will be wiped out with no option on how to recover them" How will Fusion wipe out existing part numbers?

[thomasDTVML]

As per attached screenshot

Link to a drawing that has been created prior to the latest update with the part number of the pressed part different to that of the flat pattern: https://a360.co/42uXwPD

 

[Phil.E]

Okay, I see the impact.

What was the part number of the folded part vs flat part? I ask because when I open the design, Fusion says it is overwriting the flat pattern part number, but it appears blank at first. Is this how you expect it, or was there another value there?

[thomasDTVML]

Open it on a web browser rather than in the program. 

Screen grabs attached. 

[AlessandroZap]

I’m the one who submitted this request, and for my company, it’s a critically important update. It will save us a lot of unnecessary work, and I want to thank the Autodesk team for implementing it.

However, I do realize that other users or companies might have different workflows. Perhaps it would have been enough not to automatically overwrite the old files (I mean to leave the choice to the user). As for new files, as Phil mentioned, nothing would have changed anyway, since a part number had to be manually entered for flat patterns even before.

[Phil.E]

Thanks for the response. I looked for a way to edit the flat pattern part number, but do not see a method using Properties. Sounds silly, but can you please remind me how you are doing / did that?

[AlessandroZap]

Well, before, with the flat pattern open, when you right click it and select properties, a window like for solid component would open. There you could fill the part number field (as for the description). Now when you open the properties, you have read-only informations.

In the Drawing context, you can still enter manually a part number and overwrite it if you double click the part number attribute field in the title block.

[thomasDTVML]

The box that allows you to alter the "part number" that is in the pressed part properties also used to be found in the flat pattern properties. 

Autodesk taking away data and also the ability to alter it needs rectifying quickly I feel because this wrong all the way though. 

But I think the fundamental issue is still being overlooked. This is: the flat pattern is a different shape to the pressed part so should not have the same part number!!  

Using the current logic of Autodesk  any homogenous thing regardless of shape is the same part and has the same part number. How in the world is this logical? 

[AlessandroZap]

Hi Thomas, as I say in one of my post, I think that different users have different approaches to the software and different workflows.
In my point of view, the flat pattern is exactly the same part, just on a different point of the process line. You are just unfolding what you have already designed. For me it is like for a CNC milled part. You start from a block, then you mill it, then you make hole and threads. At the moment before you make hole, it has not the same shape of the final product, but it still is the same part.

[Phil.E]

That's the thing, I can't edit the part number on the drawing. Can you give it a try please?

[Phil.E]

@thomasDTVML Your concerns are all valid and reported to the team. 

1. The flat and folded part must have separate part numbers for some customers

2. Fusion now overwriting your custom part numbers is not a desired outcome for you

Does that sum it up entirely? I want to ensure all your concerns are captured here.

[thomasDTVML]

The part number shown on the drawing is automatically fed through to the drawing from the 3d Model.  as i mentioned above you could alter the part number of the flat pattern and also the pressed part in the properties dialogue box. 

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[AlessandroZap]

I just tried, I'm attaching a video capture down here.