@S_May, @swalton, @Frederick_Law
This is the other type of cone we make. This one is more common for us, and also presents the issue of optimizing plate usage.
The cone is made in courses, and usually the course sections are identical, but they wouldn't need to be if it meant better material usage. There is a benefit to reducing the amount of weld seems, but depending on the cost of the material it is not always the driving factor.
I'm given the plate sizes, in this case 58"x119", and I need to maximize sheet usage. I can tweak two values to do this, the height of the course, and the number of sections per course.
Right now I'm manually unfolding the curved section, and checking the flat pattern it to a sketch block of the sheet. I then manually iterate those values until I'm using up as much of the sheet as I can.
Presumably I could facilitate iLogic to help with this, but it seems like a daunting task.
I'm just trying to figure out how other's figure this out effectively and efficiently.
Laying out the Master Part
Assembled Cone
Screencast will be displayed here after you click Post.
33e48a08-3874-45f3-8805-679b6abe1747
Andrew Roth
rothmech.com

IV2025 Pro
Apple IIe Workstation
65C02 1.023 MHz, 64 KB RAM
Apple DOS 3.3