Hey Everybody,
I just designed a series of curved glass panels for a high end staircase for one of my clients. The staircase angles upfrom the first floor to the second floor of the residence.
The customer had the ledge of the staircase laser scanned (just adjacent to the actual stairs), so I have well defined geometry to determine what the panels should look like. A channel will be attached to the ledge, and the glass panels will fit into the channel and then be fastened in place. I have gaps between each of the panels of .25 inches.
There are a total of 7 glass panels. Out of the 7 panels, only 4 of the panels are curved (cylindrical with R135.0 inches). The curvature is normal to the plane of the floor.
In order for the fabricator to cut the flat panels (prior to forming the glass), I used the Sheetmetal module to UNBEND the formed panels so that the fabricator would know how to cut the "blanks".
When IUNBEND the curved panels, I noticed a very slight curvature along the top and bottom edges of the curved panels. So in other words, each panel looks almost exactly like a parallelogram with the left and right edges vertical, and the top and bottom edges slightly angled to follow the pitch of the staircase. In my case, after unbending, the top and bottom edges have a very slight bow.
The panels are essentially cylindrical, and the top and bottom edges essentially take a helical path.
So I did an experiment. I created a vertical surface and I swept it along a helical trajectory (helical sweep). I have 2 options when I do this:
I took a surface made using option 1 and then another using option 2. I then used the UNBEND functionality to flatten each of the panels and this is what I discovered.
When I create the surface I get that slight curvature along the top and bottom edges.
When I create the surface I get a perfectly straight lines along the top and bottom edges.
The UNBEND functionality does not give me an option to unbendthrough axis.
Any suggestions????
TIA.
Sincerely,
Neal Rosenblum
Geometrix Engineering, Inc.
201 N. 13th Avenue
Hollywood, FL 33019
Ph: 954-920-2049
Fax: 954-920-9574
Cell: 954-649-9399
neal@
Dear Pete,
When I started this project, I initially looked at the UNBEND in Sheetmetal versus the FLATTEN QUILT under the INSERT>ADVANCED menu item.
I ended up creating the surfaces and then THICKENing them to create the .500 thick glass panels. Then when I was all finished, I could treat the glass panels like sheetmetal and then UNBEND.
I think that my reasoning going this route was because I needed to provide the fabricator with both FLAT and FORMED panels (with dimensions, etc.). I think that I hadissues with the family table using the FLATTEN QUILT route.
Sincerely,
Neal Rosenblum
Geometrix Engineering, Inc.
201 N. 13th Avenue
Hollywood, FL 33019
Ph: 954-920-2049
Fax: 954-920-9574
Cell: 954-649-9399
neal@