Sheetmetal TC looking for suggestions

[extreme]

When the PTC/USER Sheetmetal TC meets (face to face) in June at the International Conference, part of our discuss will be focused on NEW Functionality/Features that we would like to see added into the development of future releases.


In order to help support the entire user community, at least everyone that reads this and replies, I would like to gather some suggestions from everyone here.


Please keep in mind, this is for NEW items, not improving on what may already exist, and yes I know there are still a lot of areas that need to be improved, and we are working on that as well. But the attempt here is to gather suggestions for adding NEW Functionality/Features.





Please send me any suggestions that you may have, and be as descriptive as possible to make the gathering of information as easy as possible.





Thanks you,


Joel Nelson


PTC/USER Sheetmetal TC Chair

 

[KAVIN_R&D]

1. 
   <LI>when creating a solid model of something the challenge in the project would be to analize the solid and then create sheets of what would be cut in the machine shop and what would be ideal is if you could create a solid and break it down to each part. </LI>
   <LI>Being able to create DXF files by selecting all parts in an assembly and at the click of a button have all dxf files instead of fliping between programs also being able to update a part and so having an updated DXF</LI>
   <LI>Having a nestingfunction in the sheetmetalsection </LI>

 

[design-engine]

I could make a list too. Give me a day. That module is kick ass already tho except wildfireizing the darn thing. Thats real close with WF4.0




Edited by: design-engine

 

[magneplanar]

some of these are probably not truly new, but perhaps they are...the rest might require me to just visit some training schools haha

A) I do not see a truly intuitive sheet metal design tool that allows you to go from a pure sketch to a sheet metal part. I can make datum curves and do all of this manually, but I need to be faster at this process to keep up with the ID. the autobuildz has function, but assumes you already have something to work with. If designing, you may be only sketching a general idea and not trying to go for the final object right away. I would like to sketch, and then assign lines to become walls and then unbend to see how much material it would use. If I have to build the whole part, it interferes with the design process when the ID shape is changing. kind of like a "layout" for sheet metal that can toggle between lines and thickened walls (like cabling)

B) a deforming tool, like the form process, but much more flexible so that you can take the form and quickly assign a surface to depress, or pull out just like how you move the light icons when setting up the lights

C) built in auto form shapes in common sheet metal scalable shapes like louvers or screw head depressions...etc - yeah yeah, make a UDF...lazy on this one

D) making a sheetmetal part that matches an offset surface where the thicken command gets stuck, as in, point out the failing locations and allow a transformation like when you have a round transition

E) built in materials available at part creation-


F) a design tool that allows you to select surfaces from the surrounding parts and offset a wall automatically to the material thickness. and then a simple patch that adds a round or deformation to fill in the gaps. for instance, a few surfaces selected, then asks the transition between walls such as , chamfer, round, bend, user defined swept shape. sometimes the sheetmetal part is buried in the plastic but needs to move parametrically with the plastic part walls, at an offset, without crashing all the bends and forms, so the wall gap transitions need to be more flexible or even freezable

cheers,

M

 

[Ring]

Pro Man/sheet metal needs allot of work. You need an Auto Load from your tool list to the Turret to the part. You need to sell posts with the software, not the "Build your own" stuff" they have now (which is designed for milling, NOT sheet metal)Or a "post building program" that doesn,t take an engineering degree in an obsolete programming language. I would like to see somework done to makethe placement of UDF,s and forms easy.The software needs special shaperecognition. As far As pro sheet goes, Aside from material deformation around forms, I,d like to see a toggle for bend line display in the flat, from the standard double linestart and end of the bend radius to a single center of bend format.This could be helpfull in pressbrake setup with a dimentioned print.

 

[design-engine]

Can you assign spot welds in assembly mode that read later in mechanica? That might be an addition if it can't be done already.

Verson 13 I recall then users were available to add form features ontop of a bend. That was a nice enhancment as we forced the major cell phone manufacturer to upgrade from version 12 to 13.

I often want a relief to be 1.5x material thickness. I should be able to add that option over 1 or 2 x material thickness.

The sheetmetal blend tools are still in need to be wilfireized still.

When creating a wall or a flange I want to be more picky about how those features are referenced. Often Ill add a dtm point before the feature so it can be referenced to a specific datum.... so the drawing shares design intent. Might be an enhancement to be able to make that dimension intent all inside the feature.


Edited by: design-engine

 

[design-engine]

one of our engineers came up with a good potential addition to Pro/SHEETMETAL.While eating Chinese take out the paper cup the rice comes in make a double fold.It seams to me that if Pro/ENGINEER could potentially make a new module for folding paper as opposed to just sheet metal.There is a big market out there for folding paper products and Pro/E can't do that kind of double bend. Pro/ORIGAMI sounds funny now but there is a market to grab where a 2d flat illustrator file dominates.

So next time you guys are out there be careful unfolding your Chinese rice to go package because your wife will think your making a mess or weired or something worse

 

[canoemike]

We just upgrade to WF-3 and our default bend tables were
not added to our config.pro at first.

So the sheetmetal parts flexed to pro-e's default instead of our company default.
This was fixed by correcting our config.pro settings.

I think having the bend table imbedded (a feature) in the part, like shrinkage is on a plastic part would be a good addition.

By adding this bend table feature, the parts can be opened on any system correctly.

Mc