Drive contour flange distance and thickness from skeleton sketch

[designFYK7D]

Hi All,

I am regularly using skeleton sketches in fabrication assemblies where I use the make part command to create a sheet metal part. In each part, I typically have a sketch for the contour flange and one for the length (or "distance" as per the dialog box for contour flange width extents). Is there an easy way to link the length of the second sketch to the distance in the contour flange instead of having to manually measure this? The "measure" and "select feature dimension" don't let me select this line in the second sketch.

The only work arounds I have found are to either dimension the "width" dimension in the derived part sketch and then link to this parameter in the contour flange dialog box (shown below) or select the relevant parameters for export when using the make part command.

In a similar context, is there an easy quick way to drive the thickness by selecting a line in one of the selected sketches? I feel like it should be as simple as selecting a line for the thickness and distance, or an easy way to import the relevant dimension parameters for the selected sketches with the make part command.

[gcoombridge · Accepted solution]

That would be nice - it seems like the sheet metal commands are lagging well behind the other feature changes... The way you're doing it is how I would (adding reference dimensions to the derived sketches).

[Anonymous]

Where are these sketches from?

Do you have a single part and then you're projecting those lines into something else?

Can you just make components of your original parts and turn them into sheet metal?

Is this method any use to you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAXE1iYkf5Y

[SharkDesign]

Just to clarify what I said above. 

You'd split your original model into multi-body, either by splitting it up if it's imported, or by using the 'new solid' when extruding parts. 

The use 'make components'

Then use the method in the video to change them into sheet metal parts. 

You should only need to set the thickness each time in that case.