Notation Flatness Sheet Metal Drawings

These bend notes will describe the bend direction bend angle and bend radius for each bend within solidworks.

Notation flatness sheet metal drawings.

The part flattens fine in the model when selecting the flat pattern icon. I ve done this hundreds of times without issue. The most parts in our production line are sheet metal parts. I want to pull the flat pattern of a sheet metal part into my drawing.

My biggest problem with other people s sheet metal drawings is that they use drawing templates designed for machined parts showing standard machining tolerances. If you tell them to do 005. It is also shown folded in the view palette which is not normal. In most cases sheet metal needs to be laser cut water jet or punched prior to bending on a brake therefore a dxf file of the flat pattern of the sheet metal model should be provided.

When you create a drawing view for a sheet metal ipart you can select an explicit ipart member on the model state tab of the drawing view dialog. The flat pattern drawing doesn t always list these factors. Bend notes in your sheet metal part drawings are a clear way to provide the required information for manufacturing they can be automatically inserted into the flat pattern drawing view. The following practices apply for sheet metal iparts.

You can create a folded model view and a flat pattern view for a sheet metal part or ipart the flat pattern option is available only if a flat pattern exists in the source file the following practices apply for sheet metal iparts. There is never enough information on the drawings. Requirements for sheet metal part drawings sheet metal parts are typically created from material less than 250 inches thick and are formed by folding the material at specific locations with a controlled bend radius. The flat pattern view is useful for fabrication and is the only view that supports sheet metal annotations.

Sheet metal shops can bend to around 015 accuracy. The convert to sheetmetal feature will only work properly if your solid part is uniform in thickness. However to match the other dimensions that are included it would require your manufacturer to work with incorrect or unachievable sheet metal forming factors. If a flat pattern is available in an ipart member file the flat pattern option is enabled in the drawing view dialog.

From our experience i can tell you that it is better to make a note with information about bend line bending angle and radii. This makes matching these dimensions during the modeling stage difficult and time consuming. See document 10 0005 blah drawing drafting standards and practices for the proper setup of a sheet metal drawing.