SVAN GELDERN Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 A friend of mine who owns a machine shop received 2d drawings of some brackets and asked me if I could "unfold" them and give him some dimensioned drawings of the unfolded parts so he could make "blanks". These are prototypes so the quantity was only 3 each. "Dude, IC can do anything! Give me an hour." I responded, even though I don't do any sheet metal design in IC. Well, what I had to do was create the sheet metal as if everything was "square" and dimensionally correct. I then unfolded the part and created the desired outline as a 2d shape, folded and then applied the 2d shape as a "custom profile". In worked! My question: Is this the correct approach for funny shaped sheet metal or is there a better way to do this? I ask because my hour to create his drawings became three. If IC could accept these modifications in an unfolded configuration I would have been under my time estimate. Regardless, there is a six-pack of Budweiser coming my way Thanks, Steve Bracket_1.tif Bracket_2.tif Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cary OConnor Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 Did you already have the model? If so, import and use the unfold surface/solid command. Done! If not, I'll let the sheet metal gurus respond with all their secrets Cary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SVAN GELDERN Posted November 25, 2014 Author Share Posted November 25, 2014 Cary, No model....started with a 2d drawing off the FAX machine. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlehnhaeuser Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 Steve If you have a slot on the side of your computer, feed the fax in it and IronCAD will do the rest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDEAR Posted November 27, 2014 Share Posted November 27, 2014 Regardless, there is a six-pack of Budweiser coming my way Come to NZ. You'd get Three Boys for that effort. http://www.threeboysbrewery.co.nz/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDEAR Posted November 27, 2014 Share Posted November 27, 2014 I then unfolded the part and created the desired outline as a 2d shape, folded and then applied the 2d shape as a "custom profile". 39506[/snapback] Steve, how did you achieve that? I have tried to emulate what you describe here but have not been successful. Can you provide bullet point steps? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SVAN GELDERN Posted November 28, 2014 Author Share Posted November 28, 2014 Harley, Attached is a video showing the steps I used. These steps worked as well on another small bracket but I haven't done any further testing. Steve FunnySM1.7z Bracket_1.tif Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDEAR Posted November 28, 2014 Share Posted November 28, 2014 (edited) Harley, Attached is a video showing the steps I used. These steps worked as well on another small bracket but I haven't done any further testing. Steve Thanks Steve, That looks reasonably quick to me, but I guess your time was taken finding out how to do it in the first place. Anyhow, for what it's worth, I tried to figure out what you did in conjunction with what I've recently learned from Jonas, and got the exercise down to about 15minutes ( hindsight is a wonderful teacher ) Attached pdf explains my process. You will see I struggled with the reliefs on the bends but once I figured out how to fix them ( measure error and then a bit of trial and error ) it was a snap. Anyhow, I learned a lot from your video, so once again, thanks. I think your method was better for the bend reliefs to work quicker. Bracket_model_to_draw.pdf Edited November 29, 2014 by HDEAR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDEAR Posted November 29, 2014 Share Posted November 29, 2014 (edited) Harley, Attached is a video showing the steps I used. Thanks - your video was very helpful. I used your method Steve and had a bit of trouble, no doubt something I missed or did wrong. First, the copy of the 2D profile, when pasted, was quite a way off where it should have landed and was also 90 degrees out. When I deleted the Custom Profile hole ( I used to start the profile off ) and finished the edit, I got no result. I then found that the profile was about 1.5mm higher than the folded stock face and once I dropped the Custom Profile onto the stock face using triball, one of the tabs worked ( accepted shape ) and the other one didn't. Yet when I unfolded, I had the correct unfold shape. Something real odd going on here. Sketches and the file attached if anyone can show where I screwed up. Thanks Harley Additional edit - I tried redoing the above but I couldn't even get one of the bends to accept the profile shape - ics Svan Bracket 3 drawing attached Svan_bracket_2.ics Svan_bracket_3.ics Svan_bracket_4.ics Edited November 29, 2014 by HDEAR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cborer Posted November 29, 2014 Share Posted November 29, 2014 (edited) Tom! This belongs to the enhancement section! Edited November 29, 2014 by cborer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SVAN GELDERN Posted December 1, 2014 Author Share Posted December 1, 2014 Harley, I have no idea..... I'm attaching our .ics files so maybe you or someone else can figure this out. Cheers, Steve 4022_655_9215.ics 4022_655_9217.ics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDEAR Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 (edited) Harley, I have no idea..... I'm attaching our .ics files so maybe you or someone else can figure this out. Cheers, Steve Thanks - I am betting it's a setting or something like that. May be similar to the problem I was having with dleczynski's lesson on making sheetmetal from BREP files - he got it working, so did others but I couldn't Cheers Harley Edited December 2, 2014 by HDEAR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDEAR Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 (edited) I'm attaching our .ics files so maybe you or someone else can figure this out. Well, for some reason I do not completely understand, I am getting the bent bracket to work about 8 time out of ten. I noticed in your file that your bend radius had changed from the minimum standard on the parts property ( 1.5mm ) to 1.6mm. I guess you do that to prevent conficts on the bend vertices when you were altering the stock size dimensions. When I added bends sometimes, then immediately saved and closed the file, it come up with a conflict on the bends which I chose to fix as per the dialogue box when I re-opened it. This seemed to have an effect on the finished article. Also pasting the sketch when editing the custom profile prvde tricky as often the sketch would be the opposite hand of where I wanted it to be. Fiddling around too often meant the finsihed article had problems. Anyhow, I seem to be getting it right and now the next challenge is to see if your method will somehow take two bends, for instance a stamped blank with straight sides, folded in two areas to produce a handle. I can get the right shape when unfolded, but when I refold, the sketch shape only takes on the first bend. Files attached Harley Yet_Another_HD_bent_bracket.ics Edited December 6, 2014 by HDEAR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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