Sheet Metal Bend Radius

When designing a sheet metal part using the extruded wall feature, do
you always have to add fillets to represent the bends can you define a
default bend radius somewhere and have the system add them to sharp
corners you sketch?

 

: When designing a sheet metal part using the extruded wall feature, do
: you always have to add fillets to represent the bends or can you define a
: default bend radius somewhere and have the system add them to sharp
: corners you sketch?

In sheetmetal, when you've done 'Feat>Create>Sheetmetal>Wall' and gotten to the
Options menu where you can select Extruded, you'll notice at the bottom of the
menu some choices. If you wish to generate you own radiuses by sketching the
radius or later creating rounds on corners, pick 'No Radius'. If you wish to have
the program generate the radiuses at the corner (and figure developed length),
pick the 'Use Radius' option. Subsequently, you'll be asked to decide whether
you're specifying the dimension of the inside or outside radius and, after
creating the sketch for the extruded wall, you'll be given some two defaults for
specifying radius plus the option to enter a value. The two defaults are Thickness
or 2*Thickness; these act in conjunction with your inside/outside radius choice.
So, for example, if you'd said outside radius and picked thickness, the inside
radius would be zero. Or, if you'd picked inside radius and said thickness, on a
one millimeter thick part, the inside radius would be a millimeter and the outside
radius would be two times stock thickness.

One last hint about sheetmetal design with Pro/SHEETMETAL and this is something I
had to figure out for myself as I've seen it documented nowhere. Most sheetmetal
design builds from either the outside in or the inside out. Many enclosures that
have to fit in fairly tight spaces build from the outside dimensions of the part.
Electronic component RF shielding OTOH form themselves tightly around the
component, making inside dimensions of the 'box' critical. How do you design this
way with extruded or flat wall in Pro/e? Both types ask for an attachment edge and
sketching planes. In the case of the extruded wall, you are just sketching a line
to represent an angle to another wall and a length. Thickness will be added. But,
will it be added to t he inside or outside? If you sketch the line away from the
part (e.g., pick the top edge and sketch up or bottom edge and sketch down), you
have sketched the inside of the wall and thickness will be added tothe outside. If
you do the opposite, pick teh top edge and sketch down, across the thickness of
the part, you have sketched the outside of the wall and thickness will be added to
the inside. The same applies to flat, secondary walls. Also, radiusing will work
into the part. Much grief will be saved by remembering this.

David Janes