unfold or flatten a curved surface

[Jon Arklay]

Hi,

This should (on the face of it, parden the pun) be an easy task. I created a lofted surface over 3 scketched lines. The result is a niceCAD Tutor.zip curved surface. I then thinkened the surface and converted to Sheet metal. At this point I expected to just set the sheet metal defaults to the same 6mm as my thickened surface, and create a flat pattern. But Inventor seems to not find a bend and errors!! So I try Unfold, no joy....Any one got a solution, please?

.ipt attached

 

Many thanks, Jon

[JD Mather]

That will not flatten in Inventor or SolidWorks.

 

Think of taking a sheet of plastic and pulling down over a bowling ball. The material must deform (stretch) in multiple directions (not just one fold) to form the the ball without wrinkles.

 

Your shape is not such an obvious deformation - but it is deformed loft.

 

The solution - Imagine your boat is made of planks of plywood (laminated thin sheet oriented in different directions - will not stretch).

The plywood will bend along a single curve but not deform.

Your task is to divide up the desired final shape such that it can be built from cylindrical or conical bent sheets.....

.....or use a manufacturing process, material and CAD software that will allow multi-direction stretching (and unfolding solution)

[Jon Arklay]

Thank you Mr Mather, you are right of course and I see your point. Many thanks for the responce

 

Jon

[northwind]

Hi Jon Arklay,

 

Actually there are flatten or unfold function for Inventor or Solidworks. The company solid3dtech.com provides such kind of tools to do the unfolding.

 

John