Hello, I am new to Creo and CAD in general. I work in fabrication mainly but am slowly learning various CAD and CAM systems. I am currently working on a project in Creo 7.0 where I am attempting to convert solid models into sheet metal parts with layout lines to be used in a CNC scribing and cutting operation.
The end product is something like this, this particular component only has "flat" geometry so none of the following was required.
This is the part file I am starting with. The main plate is a sketched line that is extruded upward and outward to create the height and thickness. Then the smaller extrusions are sketched and extruded off of the main plate.
The following are steps I am taking to produce a usable view to cut on the CNC machine.
First, I am using the Convert to Sheet Metal tool. I select the flat surface on the right as the driving surface and add purple highlighted sections of the plate to the included surfaces so the whole plate is orange minus the small extrusions (if I add them the model will fail to regenerate).
I then select OK and presented with these 2 errors.
And the model begins to look like this with "holes" in it. And one extrusion on it because it would not allow me to remove it from included surfaces.
From here I begin to use the unbend tool individually on each curve. The "Flat Pattern" tool only results in a "fail to regenerate". Once un-bent it will look like this, not quite flat and has a part of the model out in space.
So, to me it seems like there has to be a more correct/easier way to do this. Is there a way I can take the face geometry of the surface with the extrusions and lay it flat? Once scribed and cut, the plates get formed into the shape of the original model and extrusions welded to the main plate. I am not the person who drew these models originally and we have 20 plus years' worth of similar models we would like to be able to convert like this. Thanks in advance, any help is appreciated.
Here is an example of a finished product. Many of these plates are combined into a larger assembly. Is there a way to copy/sketch the face geometry and paste the cosmetic sketch onto a new part that does not have the extrusions? Thanks
I think I understand what you are saying, but that requires this to be modeled in sheet metal to start. Correct? These are all been historically modeled in Solid, we are working on using sheet metal from here forward. There are "parts" to the Assembly, but they are the whole component I am showing. The small extrusions that I am looking to have reference lines for are within the part file of the component. I hope that makes sense... Here is an example of the actual assembly model.
The holes and extrusions are not just for the scribe lines. They are part of the main part and assembly designing phase. (There are more components not pictured) We could probably just project a cosmetic sketch into the main plate off of the extrusions and suppress the extrusions but when I try to suppress the extrusions it removes the sketch. I'm assuming because it is an outline of the extrusion? We are also running into an issue of not being able to completely flatten certain plates. Some parts will straighten while one curve will not?
The "slug" left behind from cutting the hole for the tube is not attached to a wall and causes a problem with unbending and the flat pattern feature. This is also the reason for the errors.
If you are creating the hole to get scribe lines, I would suggest projecting a sketch onto the surface to create the scribe lines. The projected sketch will "unbend" with the flat pattern.
