Building 90 degree elbows in Inventor

[amt]

Currently studying/practicing developing a flat pattern to create a 4 piece 90 degree elbow. 

Just following the instructions in a "pencil and paper" drafting book but using

AutoCAD to automate and speed up the process.

My question - can a flat pattern be created in Inventor without using Sheet Metal or 

Tube and Pipe rules (have not studied these two sections very much so far).

Did try a basic Inventor construction on both circular and hexagonal cross section

profiles. Excellent practice on work plane, points, axes but mating faces did not come

out correctly.

A second question - what needs to be done to constrain two circular extrusions along

two faces that are each cut at an angle (say 15 degrees). Attempted to do so but really tough

to align outside surfaces when there are no alignment marks to use.

Thanking all in advance and appreciate any help on the questions.

Andrew

[trevorauman · Accepted solution]

The only way I have found to get Sheet Metal parts in Inventor to do a flat pattern of a tube is to put a very small slit in the tube so that it knows where to break the part for the flat pattern. I assume you are working with sheet metal and you will be welding this split back up anyway. To do a four piece elbow would require four separate .ipt files in an assembly, each with their own flat patterns (or one part repeated four times). Would not be hard to automate with a little effort.

[JDMather · Accepted solution]

[amt]

Thank you for the response. Your idea to add some type of alignment mark 

to the part file makes perfect sense.

Again, thank you for the help.  Andrew

[amt]

Thank you for the reply and files. I shall look at them shortly. 

In the preview I see the vertical alignment lines.

Again, your help is very much appreciated.     Andrew

[jyager · Accepted solution]

Your shop might not handle the gores that way though. Any production shop is going to do nested gores to avoid wasting all the material you'd do repeating the same gore to have the seam on the inside.

One seam is in the throat, next on the heel, next in the throat etc. The non seamed center of the gore usually has a small bisecting notch for alignment.

[amt]

Thank you - excellent images to view.

Appreciate the feedback and advice. Will 

test out shortly.

Andrew

[jyager · Accepted solution]

If you do enough duct in inventor, the  Duct Pro add-on is invaluable.

[amt]

Thanks again. Will take a look.   Andrew

[alexia_osborne]

Is there a tutorial video for this posted? I searched the linked YouTube channel and could not find one. Thanks!

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Here is a YouTube video showing how to make it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzI43sEsULo

Many thanks!