Inventor 2023 - How do you roll up a rough surfaced rectangular plate to make it a cylinder?

[xxpochita123]

I've tried the 'Bend' and 'Contour Roll' commands and none of them seems to work. I'm not sure if it's possible to do it in Inventor. If not, can you please suggest a software that would make this work? I can't attach the actual file (it's around 300MB).

reishaseeBS8ZE_0-1665934451282.png

[blandb]

Is that a mesh model? I cant tell from the image, but the browser doesn't show it as such and doesnt appear to be a surface either, but do to the irregular surfaces, I don't think sheet metal commands will work. Have you looked at the 3D model Tab > Modify Panel  drop down > Bend part. You will need a sketch as a bend line on a flat face and then define what you want off that.

blandb_0-1665951502937.png

[pcrawley]

It looks like a mesh imported as a solid.  I don't think there's anything in Inventor that would help.

3ds max has a "Bend" modifier that would roll that mesh up into a cylinder easily - then you can bring it back into Inventor the same way you imported the original mesh.

[xxpochita123]

I originally drew that in Autocad using these commands: 3DFACE > CONVTOMESH > SURFSCULPT to make it a 3D SOLID object.

[xxpochita123]

This is what always says in mine:

xxpochita123_0-1665960876898.png

[pcrawley]

No, Inventors “Bend” won’t work on surface or mesh geometry. 

Can you post the DWG of the original surface?  I’ll try rolling it into a cylinder for you in max. 

[xxpochita123]

I'll post this instead. This one is different from the photo, and this is not mesh. It consists of individual 3D Solids. In this case, is it still possible to bend it? Or should the individual solids be combined together so that you can bend it?

[pcrawley]

With this model, you can use Inventor's Bend.

In AutoCAD - "Combine" all the solids into one.

• Export from AutoCAD as Acis SAT format
• Import the SAT into Inventor
• Sketch on the flat back and draw the bend line.
• Bend - and be prepared to wait because Inventor needs to think about this one!

I would have posted the part, but I'm out of time and late for dinner...

0001.jpg

 

[xxpochita123]

From the file that I've sent you, do you know how it was made? The person who made that file is no longer in our lab so I'm really not sure how he was able to make that in AutoCAD. I cannot 'Extrude' or 'Loft' because the surfaces are non-planar.

[xxpochita123]

Also, with this method, will it be able to form a perfect circular cylinder and not an oval cylinder?

[pcrawley]

The bend radius is calculated as 220in / 2 / Pi (where 220 is the length of the long straight)

001.jpg

This is the result - part file attached.

002.jpg

How would you create it?  There are several ways in AutoCAD, but the choice would depend on where the data comes from for the rough surface. 

My guess is that it is a scan or some other mathematical model - so you probably have X, Y, Z coordinate data for it.  In which case, I would put that data in Excel and concatenate it with the Box command, so you end up with a string reading "Box x y z ".  Once you have that, you can copy and paste all the Box commands onto the command line in AutoCAD and it'll draw it for you.

[xxpochita123]

3DFACE > CONVTOMESH > SURFSCULPT

The problem with this is that it takes so much time, particularly the SURFSCULPT (more than 3 hours). I can't do Box command because the surface is uneven.

[xxpochita123]

Just to clarify, you draw the reference line at the center of the plate. Is that correct?

[pcrawley]

Position of the line: Yes.  You can see the bend line in my first screen shot:

001.jpg

I don't know what data you're working with - so it is difficult to help further without more information.

 

[xxpochita123]

Everytime I try to bend the object, I always get this message. Can someone tell me where did I go wrong? Please see attached file for your checking.

xxpochita123_0-1666150048675.png

Also, the imported file (in SAT format) is in millimeters, but the magnitude of the dimensions keep on changing to inches (but the unit is in millimeter). The length of plate is around 519mm, but when I try to measure it, it's 13182.3742782 mm (magnitude is in inches but unit is millimeter).

[pcrawley]

Hi @xxpochita123 - did you look at the model I posted in Message 11?

It looks like you are using a 3d sketch - the Bend tool only works with a 2d Sketch.  Are you are also trying to bend the rough surface so it is inside the tube?  All the posts so far show the rough surface outside.

I'm still not clear where you want to go with this.  Bending the part will either compress the rough surface (if it's inside the tube) or stretch it (if it's the outside).  

Regarding the dimensions:  Is the surface data in mm?  If so, you'll need to make sure you import onto a metric template or scale the model before bending.