[Sheetmetal] Points on a wall and unbend

[RaphMORIN]

Hi all,

Here's a problem I have on sheetmetal. I have drawn a sketch containing points on a wall. When I unbend the points remain in the same place and don't follow the wall.

The problem is that I have welded studs constrained on this points, and I would like to do a drawing for the workshop showing the welded studs on the flat part.

Any idea ??

As a workaround, I think of doing a second sketch on the flat part and assemble the studs on it...

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[KenFarley]

Don't weld studs usually have either a thru hole or a pilot hole to locate them? If so, you could put the holes in walls, then they would be in the flat pattern. Of course, I don't know what type of studs you are planning to use, but that's my suggestion.

[RaphMORIN]

No, in fact they don't need a hole. We weld them with a cnc machine. They look like below and are designed to be weld on a flat surface.

[TomD.inPDX]

What if you moved the points to a unfolded state. do they fold back?

I've done a little in this regard and sometimes things move with and other times they don't.

There has to be some logic to it.

I would recommend you create a support case if you can.

Quite often I've had very qualified technicians explain a lot more than I'd ever gleaned from this forum.

Another thought is to place holes and then refill them.  These holes provide axes which can be used for the studs.

[JamesKasson]

We use very small shallow blind holes in this case, then either assign a marking tool in our CAM software for punching, or etch the circle for laser cutting. One can use the hole tool or make a extruded cut with the "remove material normal to surface" deselected.

[RaphMORIN]

Thanks James for the workaround. I made small shallow blind holes and constrained the studs on them. It works fine now.

I open a case to see what PTC says.

[jfrankovich]

Another way that has worked for me is to use punch axis points (punch_axis_points option set to yes in config).

In the sheetmetal part (folded or unfolded), create an extrusion. In the sketch place a sketch point where you want the stud to be placed and then, just in order to complete a valid sketch, create some geometry entirely outside of the sheetmetal.(This geometry will not show up at all.) Complete the Extrude feature and you will have a punch axis point that will follow the bend and unbend of the part. And you don't have any "extra" features modifying the base geometry. Assemble your studs referencing the points and their position will follow based on the folded/unfolded state of the sheetmetal part

[kdirth]

That is how CREO works.

Another work around is to make points in the flat state also.  Then in the assembly assemble a second set of weld studs with the part flattened.  You can then use simplified reps to show the assembly correctly in both states.

[dpruitt]

Why not just assemble the studs directly to the part without any points or axis and pattern to suit what you need, it's easier to change positions because you go directly to the part instead of rooting through the model tree to figure out how they're constrained. IMHO....just another way to do it.

[Dale_Rosema]

Didn't know if the solution from this thread would work here too:

sketch on sheet metal surface

[TomD.inPDX]

Nice find, Dale!

[RaphMORIN]

Thanks Dale for this find. Unfortunately it works only with lines or curves and not points ! Anyway I keep this technic in mind.

[Dale_Rosema]

Didn't try this, but could you use lines to make intersections that would "hold" the points?

[dpruitt]

I tried it Dale and the points still didn't move.