Some direction/help working towards flat objects from 3D model, please.

Hello, all. I'm middle-aged and play in too many areas to ever be expert in any of them. I try to learn Inventor but do it so sporadically that I'll never be anything more than a hack.

Recently I thought it would be a fun exercise to try to make my own rifle bean-bag for sighting in scopes. The intent was to design the bag, export it to flat shapes to cut from fabric, and then sew them together. Sounds simple but it wasn't. I got the thing made, but I'm pretty sure my workflow was sloppy and could have been better.

I first tried making a solid and then exporting a face which didn't work for me (I've been banging on this for 2 days so I couldn't possibly detail my efforts, I'm sorry). In the attachment Part2.ipt you'll see what I'm intending the final product to look like.

My final attempt to make this work I did two things. I made a second part file and made a Sheet Metal Contour Flange of the "McDonald's Arch" which I then Sculpted with work planes to get the angled sides I wanted. I then did Go To Flat Pattern and Export Face As... to DWG, did an Offset to allow for sewing border. You can see this in the attachment Part7.ipt. For the second part, in Part2.ipt, I made a Work Plane offset from the angled M-looking side of 0.045" and Sculpted out the middle section, then did the Export Face As... to get a DWG and did the Offset in the DWG. You can see this by dragging the End Of Folded down in the Part2.ipt file in the Model ribbon on the left (of my setup, anyway).

I accomplished what I wanted but I feel it was an ugly hack. Basically, the idea here was to make a model quickly which could be exported as flats for cutting the fabric from which I would make the bean bag rifle rest. I tried Surfaces and modeled the whole thing but couldn't export them as flat objects so that's when I tried the Sheet Metal angle. I read through the chapter in the Mastering Inventor 2012 (well, skimmed it, anyway) and came away feeling that what I was trying to do was in the gray between "solid modeling" and "sheet metal modeling".

Trust me, these drawings are the last of many I tried. I didn't get this close to solving the problem on the first try or the first day. I feel there must be a better way but I lack the experience to know it or the knowledge to make an effective search for the answer.

Thank you for your time and help.

--HC

Part2.ipt

Part7.ipt

Have you installed all Service Packs and Updates for 2015?

Use only the Sheet Metal tools for your design - and do each panel separately.

With more experience - you could generate the panels from your model, but it will probably be best for you to stick to the Sheet Metal tools for now.

Extrude and Sculpt are not in the Sheet Metal tools.

JD, thank you for your reply and help.

I had missed SP2 which is now installed. I found no hotfixes for 2015 SP2.

I did as you said (I've been working on this intermittently since shortly after you posted your reply). I stayed in the Sheet Metal tools. I had no problems getting the McDonald's-arch piece, that's Step 1.ipt. In Step 2.ipt, I used Cut to trim the elongated arch to the profile I wanted. Not too bad. However, in Step 3.ipt, I was trying to get the part drawing to cap the open, arched sides, and the best I could do was to create a Sketch on the thin face of the arch and then Export Sketch.... to get it into AutoCAD. This is acceptable for my use but probably not still right. I had two problems with this step: 1) when I made a Face from the Sketch (sketch 7 in Step 3.ipt) the face got holes in the tops of the arch, and 2) the Face joined the arch and I could no longer flatten the arch to get the profile of material I need to cut.

I'm better today than I was when I first tried it, for sure, and I was able to do it with Sheet Metal tools. I can accomplish what I want with what I can now do. I imagine there are better methods for finishing this but, if I put a Face on the ends then this thing becomes something that would be made from separate pieces of sheet metal nested together or stamped in which case I wouldn't model it with Sheet Metal tools.

If you want to weigh in with better direction I'm all ears otherwise, at this time, I'm able, as I mentioned, to do what I wanted to do (I think; I'll find out better after I cut some material and try to sew it up).

Thanks again.

--HC

Step 1.ipt

Step 2.ipt

Step 3.ipt