sheet metal

I'm a farily new user. I've been trying to turn the outside face of an
eccentric cone into sheet metal and be able to unfold it. Can anyone explain
to me how to do this?

Thank You

 

bob z. isn't quite sure how to take that face and do anything with it.
when bob z. first learned to use swx, though, a cone was the very first
thing he wanted to draw. of course, this was the first thing that
wasn't 'work-related'.

the key to making this work and unfolding it is to do a revolve, but do
not revolve your part (feature) the full 360 degrees. stop short at
about 359 or something like that.

good luck and have fun!

bob z.

 

You can draw 2 circles (with small breaks in them) on parallel planes
seperated by distance, then use the sheet metal 'lofted bends' command to
form the shape. It will unfold and as long as any modifications (cut's etc)
are 'normal cuts' or done when bends are collected it will retain the
unfold capability.

Unfortunately the only thing I want to do with them (lop one end off with a
spline) cannot be done 'normal cut' so I lose the unfold capability.

Zander

 

Select a straight edge instead of a face. The cone has to have a gap in
it, like a 359 deg revolve.

Oh, sorry, you said "eccentric" cone. Yeah, you're gonna have to do the
lofted bend that someone already mentioned. SW can unroll a regular cone.

On the other hand, if it's just a regular cone where the ends are cut not
perpendicular to the cone axis, then the edge can be used to flatten it.

Anyway, good luck.

matt

 

Hi Peter,

I made a couple models that show examples of how to do this. Mind
you, they are fairly simple, but worth taking a look at. One shows
the "lofted method" and the other shows the "polygon method".

http://www.sheetmetaldesign.com/Cad-SolidWorks/Example16-EccentricTubes.zip

Regards,

SMA

 

Thanks everyone. It worked like a charm.