convert to sheetmetal without perpendiculare edges for 3d lasercutting

[BJP]

I would like to be able to design tubes in Creo Parametric that will be 3d lasercut (to an angle of max 45 degrees).

When I convert a body to sheetmetal, sidewalls are made perpendicular to eachother automatically.

There are some workarounds to have angled sidewalls in sheetmetal but is it possible to have sheetmetal not do this automatically? I still need the unbend/bend back function in sheetmetal or I wouldnt use it at all for tube design.

[StephenW]

It *MAY* work for you to use the normal extrude, instead of the sheetmetal extrude cut.

The issue you will likely have is when you unbend, it will skew the edges because the cut is as odd angles based on the thickness.

[BJP]

This is the workaround I use now. The problem is that when I start sheetmetal with a tube that already has cut angles other than 90 degrees, it  automaticly "messes up" the edges. So I first have to make all angles 90 degrees before converting to sheetmetal and then make the cut in the model tab like you suggest.

[kdirth]

Create it in sheetmetal and turn off the Normal to surface button when cutting the angle.

[BJP]

I design everything in skeleton bodies and try to minimise part features at all. Especially in sheetmetal as its not very forgiving when modifying designs from the root.

[StephenW]

Also helpful for solving your problem is an explanation of what your overall goal is? Why do you need unbend and bend back.? Maybe your requirement could be achieved without using sheetmetal at all.

[BJP]

I need the unbend function to be able to unbend a tube so that it can be exported to a step file with only a straight tube with cut-outs.

[kdirth]

Drag your cuts down the tree to after the conversion.

[BJP]

That would work if I didnt use skeletons

[StephenW]

Have you tried other methods for unbending? Like warp or spinal bend?

Sheetmetal is a tool that does really good on sheetmetal bending operations (press brake bends really). Other uses may be handy but there are very specific things it does that don't lend themselves to non-sheetmetal operations.