Sheet Metal Roll

[farrous13]

Hello,

 

Using Inventor 2011, I designed a piece of sheet metal that has to be rolled in a circular way. I know I can draw the circle, offset it and then use the Face command and then flatten the piece. However, there are a lot of details on the face of the sheet metal and its very hard to allocate those details when the piece is in a circular shape. And when I try to flatten the piece to add the details I get a msg "Edits to the flat pattern are exclusively applied to the flat pattern and will not be reflected on the folded model".

 

Is there a way after I create the sheet metal and rotate it in a circular way around and axis?

 

Thanks in advance.

[JD Mather]

Create circle with pie shaped trim.

Contoured Flange.

Unfold.

Cut details.

Refold.

Flat Pattern

 

There are several variations of this technique. (Cut Across Bend is one other technique but requires a bit more explaination.)

 

Attach your file here if you can't figure it out.

 

Here is a very basic example (in my example I had to use Extrude to do the cut as the Sheet Metal Cut tool would not recognize sketch text). For intersections of mating parts to cylinders the technique is a bit more complex, but since you haven't fully defined your design intent.....

[farrous13]

The problem is I cant unfold and cut the details. When I do unfold and try to perform any kind of details, I get a message "Edits to the flat pattern are exclusively applied to the flat pattern and will not be reflected on the folded model".

Do u know how I can remove this message to modify the piece and then when I fold back this piece I can still see the mods?

 

Thanks

[JD Mather]

The problem is I cant unfold and cut the details. When I do unfold and try to perform any kind of details, I get a message "Edits to the flat pattern are exclusively applied to the flat pattern and will

Thanks

 

No, no, no. It sounds like you are trying to edit the flat pattern.

In 2010 or 2011 use the Unfold tool (not flat pattern). If I'm missing something then attach a file exhibiting this behavior here. We spend all this time learning to communicate with CAD geometry. let's communicate with CAD geometry.

 

There are other more sophisticated methods for more complex stuff (what happened to my example attachment? Did you see it?