Multiple Sheet metal materials in multibody

[Thetigerpirro]

So we can now have multiple thicknesses when doing multibody modelling in the sheet metal environment. 

To keep the connection between your plate and your dummy you need to keep the sheet metal styles linked.

If some parts need to be of other materials then you have to change that in the exported part file, resulting in you either having to break the link or risking the material reverting to the default.

So I want a option to not only switch the thickness of individual solids, but also the material.

I know there are workarounds, but all I have found result in a more complex structure or more stuff to keep track of.

Have a nice day.

[Ivil]

Yes the workflow should get much easier if i where able to use multibody...

[Anonymous]

I recently came across this with a customer. Where they are using Multi Body Sheet Metal for large fabrications. After using Make Components, with link sheet metal style turned on, to pick up thickness changes etc. Some of the derived parts need different materials, so the Material is changed from "By Sheet Metal Rule" to whatever is required, example below.

However, if a change is then made to the master part, for example a cut or a hole is added to the part with a changed material. After updating through the models, the derived part Material reverts back to "By Sheet Metal Rule". If this is not noticed, there is a risk that Parts Lists or BOM's are wrong.

I personally believe that a separate option to cover material should be included in Make Components, to give the option to maintain material from style. Or if a derived parts material is consciously changed from "By Sheet Metal Rule" to something else, it should stick with this.

Tested in both Iventor 2019 and 2020, with the same results.

[tonis_kivisild]

This has been a huge problem in our company as well. All complex models involve using miltybodys. The only way to prevent accidental material change before BOM creationis to manually create new sheet metal style each time I need a new material-thickness combination in the multibody. This is time consuming process but without doing it there will most definitely be a time where some feature (main sketch) is changed that updates all multibody parts and resets all the materials on the part level.

There really needs to be an option to link sheet metal styles without linking materials so they can be easily changed on part level from the assembly BOM window (copy-paste).

[Thetigerpirro]

@tonis_kivisild

Correct. Usually you are on top of things and know that when you change stuff in the dummy/master model, it's going to push out a change, but even if the chance of it happening is small, the risk can be huge.

One really bad scenario would be if you're making something out of plastic but you add in one steel part for holding loads. If that gets reset to plastic, the results could be devestating. It's also something that is really hard to catch in reviewing drawings.

So, for me, this change is kind of important.