SOLIDWORKS Sheet Metal
SOLIDWORKS Sheet Metal Tips and Tricks from Javelin’s Certified Experts
Often times we create sheet metal works of art (or just really complex designs) and we want the design to be clearly shown as a SOLIDWORKS Sheet Metal Flat Pattern Drawing View. Here I’ve create a relatively simple part (just tell that to the laser cutting machine operator) — just a bent plate with some…
There are several Sheet Metal Forming tools available in the Design Library that can be easily dragged onto a Sheet Metal part to add features. Just be aware that SolidWorks Sheet Metal does not account for material deformation during the forming process. The part will have a uniform thickness through the formed feature even if…
You have to upgrade to SOLIDWORKS 2013 SP3.0 in order to have total control over the bend allowance for multibody sheet metal parts. Note: Many thanks to Anna Wood for making me aware about this new functionality While the ability to control the thickness, default radius and the bend allowance at the body level has…
Sheet Metal Bend Deduction Calculations with Switching Directions
When using Bend Deductions in sheet metal, be careful when you have corners that change directions. As shown at the bottom of the blog post Sheet Metal Bend Allowance Calculations, the Bend Deduction calculation is straight forward by taking all outside dimensions then subtracting the bend deduction values for each bend. All Bends in the…
How to import Sheet Metal Geometry into SOLIDWORKS from STEP, Parasolid, IGES etc.
Importing model geometry can be a real pain if you don’t know how to apply some tricks. We will take a look at a few techniques for SOLIDWORKS sheet metal import. Import Geometry When geometry is imported into SOLIDWORKS, a dialog appears and asks you to run “Import Diagnostics”. We will go ahead and run…
SOLIDWORKS has supported sheet metal multi-body parts for the last two releases, but that still came as a pleasant surprise for me. The advantages are huge and clear — you can design all your sheet metal components in the context of one part, generate a handy cut-list and sprinkle the drawings with nice balloons, like in…
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