converting to sheet metal in solidworks with no fixed face

Visit the SolidSolutions blog to view more methods for working with Sheet Metal parts from our new engineers Jordan and Will.

The part is now converted to sheet metal and can be viewed as a folded or flattened part.

For this example, I have selected an Open Butt corner type with a 1mm gap

Where two edges meet the gap and type of corner Open Butt, Overlap, Underlap, can be selected for all or individually.

A “Rip Sketch” will cause a “Rip Edge” to be added at a chosen location based on the geometry of the sketch. Due to the structure of this component it is impossible to bend the fourth edge to complete the shape, so we’ll need to use a “Rip Sketch”.SOLIDWORKS will then automatically select “Rip Edges” which create cuts in the sheet metal body. Select required “Bend Edges” to define the bends in the sheet metal part.This decides which face the remaining faces are bent from. Select a fixed face, here I have selected the bottom face has been selected as the fixed entity.In this example, I have used a sample table for steel and selected 14 gauge with a 2.54mm bend radius. Define the desired thickness and bend radius either by selecting a gauge table or by entering it manually.This is a useful tool if the initial part has been created using standard part modeling features such as extrudes and lofts. The tool also works well on imported Sheet Metal files, to use it simply follow these steps. “Convert to Sheet Metal” allows the user to quickly convert parts into sheet metal models, from there a flat pattern can be automatically created. So let’s start with Alex’s explanation of the Convert to Sheet Metal tool. Having recently sat on the SOLIDWORKS Sheet Metal training course we asked our Sheffield Trio – Will, Alex & Jordan – to explain how to turn imported files into fully functional SOLIDWORKS Sheet Metal. SolidSolutions has recently welcomed another 11 Technical Interns to the team, they are currently being put through a 12 week induction and as part of this they’ll be blogging about what they’ve learned.

Converting to sheet metal in solidworks with no fixed face