Developed area

[MartinJ]

Hello

Im quite new to SW. My problem is that i need developed area from a tube. The tubes one edge is drawn with a curve and i need it to be flat.
The line of the curved edge is important.

Its difficult to explain. I added a picture, so maybe its easier to understand, what my problem is.
View attachment 5936

 

[Mihail]

Designe tube from sheet metal: The sketch must be a circle with a very small gap (not 360 deg). Cut the tube as I see in your pic. Then use FLAT command.

Good luck !

 

[MartinJ]

Thanks Mihail

The tube is made with a revolved boss. As i understand, to use "convert to sheet metal" i need to select one face that will remain fixed, but with tube, there is no faces that will remain fixed.
I changed the revolve feature from 360 to 359 degrees, so now it has small gap.
Im stuck here, what are the next moves i need to do to get the tube flat?

 

[solidmonkey]

Hi Martin,


The fixed end will be one of the end faces that form the new gap.

 

[MartinJ]

Ok, but the next problem is that the tube isnt cylinder. The revolution is made from curve.
The flat command requires that when inserting bends, edge must be linear and this one is not.
If you look closely on the second picture, you can see that the tube isnt really cylinder.

 

[solidmonkey]

HI Martin,


That is a bigger problem, I'm afraid. SW would develop a conical form but you just will not be able to unwrap a curved form, and it would not form simply from a sheet-metal profile anyway. What is your production method?

 

[Mihail]

Try to redesign your tube starting with sheet metal tools. That avoid to convert your part into sheet metal part by inserting bend. I am not sure (I have not SW installed to try) but I think that SW can flat this kind of sheet metal parts.