Thin extrude: link to thickness?

When I do a thin extrude, I can't find "link to thickness". So I come back
on the dim and link.

Am I missing something?

 

The "link to thickness" option appears by default only when you have
already inserted a sheet metal feature into a part.

If you are just creating solid features, you have to create a dimension
"link" and if it is named "thickness", then the "link to thickness"
option will appear in the feature definition dialog box even though no
sheet metal feature has been introduced.

This can be useful either when a solid is being constructed which needs
consistent wall thickness or when the solid is to be turned into a
sheet metal part later on in the Feature Manager.

Per O. Hoel
____________________

 

One neat trick you can use is to create a template where you have used a
link value called "thickness", but then deleted all the sketches and
features. When you use that template, you will always get the "link to
thickness" without making it sheetmetal or creating a new link value.

Matt

 

I jumped of joy too early. In fact, I had already set up my templates with
the thickness link.

But still, no 'link to thickness' on a _thin_ extrude. For the _thin_ value
I meant, of course.
I wonder if I translate the _thin_ extrude correctly

SW2004 Sp5 / W2k here.

 

Hi Jean Marc,

Presumably you are making a sheet metal part here as the thickness is a
"reserved" word for sheet metal parts.

through the dialogue box and it toggles the "lower" inputs to follow
thickness. But in the absence of this, one should be able to use the
link value option on a feature dimension that has been created to
establish this link.

This might help your situation. Personally, I eschew manually naming
any variable using "thickness" as a name as it will sometimes
complicate the use of this variable (by "the system") for sheet metal
parts. When this variable is predefined, one must change it by
changing the depth of the inital extrude depth. In the past (like
sw2000-ish) it also inhibited the sheet metal definition.

Regards,

SMA