You can access the Sheet Metal features by clicking the tool you need in the Sheet Metal toolbar or by choosing Insert ➪ Sheet Metal from the menus, and selecting the appropriate tool.
Base Flange/Tab feature
In addition to letting SolidWorks know that the part is a dedicated sheet metal part, the Base Flange/Tab tool has three functions:
l By drawing an open contour in the first feature, the Base Flange creates a thin feature-like extrusion that includes the rounded corners of the bends.
l By drawing a closed contour in the first feature, the Base Flange creates a flat sheet that is shaped like your sketch for you to start from.
l When the Base Flange is used at any time other than the first feature, it functions as a tab.
Figure 29.1 shows these three functions of the Base Flange/Tab feature.
FIGURE 29.1
The three functions of the Base Flange/Tab feature
Notice that the sketch of the part shown in preview in Figure 29.1 has all sharp corners, and that the bend radius is automatically added to each corner by the software. SolidWorks automatically adjusts when bend directions are combined to make sure that the inside radius is always the same, regardless of bend direction.
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The bends are shown as BaseBend features in the FeatureManager. You can change individual bend radii from the default setting by editing the BaseBend feature, as well as by assigning custom bend allowances on a per-bend basis. You cannot change the bend angle for these particular bends because the angle is controlled through the sketch. However, for other types of bends (such as those created by Edge Flanges), you can adjust the bend angle through the feature
PropertyManager.
If you need to, you can reorder all the bends from a list that you can access from the right mouse button (RMB) menu selection Reorder Bends on the Flat Pattern. This dialog box is shown in Figure 29.2.
FIGURE 29.2
The Reorder Bends dialog box
The BaseBend features can be suppressed, but the only effect that this has is to prevent the associ- ated bend from flattening when the Flat Pattern feature is unsuppressed.
Sheet Metal feature
The FeatureManager is shown for the Base Flange with all the bends in Figure 29.3. The Sheet- Metal1 feature is automatically added to sheet metal parts as a placeholder for default sheet metal settings such as material thickness, default bend allowance settings, and Auto Relief options, as well as the default inside bend radius.
Gauge Table
Gauge Tables are a legacy table type, which is simply an Excel spreadsheet. In SolidWorks 2009, the data from gauge tables was consolidated with data from bend tables. However, you can still use the legacy gauge tables. The point of consolidating gauge and bend tables is so that you don’t need a separate gauge table for each K-Factor (or bend allowance or bend deduction).
Cross-Reference
Bend tables are described in more detail later in this chapter. n
Part VII: Working with Specialized Functionality
FIGURE 29.3
The FeatureManager after the Base Flange is added
Gauge tables enable you to assign a thickness and available inside-bend radii, which limits the choices that the user has for those settings in the table. Each K-Factor has a separate table, and the choices listed in the table appear in the drop-down lists in the Sheet Metal PropertyManager.
Figure 29.4 shows the top few lines of a sample Gauge Table and a Sheet Metal PropertyManager when a Gauge Table is used.
If necessary, you can override the values that are used in the Gauge Table by using the override options in the thickness, bend radius, and K-Factor fields of the PropertyManager.
The Bend Allowance options (Allowance, Deduction, and K-Factor) are explained in more detail later in this chapter.
On the CD-ROM
Several sample tables with both gauge and bend data are provided on the CD-ROM that accompanies this book. n
Bend Radius
This option specifies the default inside bend radius for all bends in the part. You can override val- ues for individual bends or individual features.
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FIGURE 29.4
A sample Gauge Table and Sheet Metal PropertyManager
Thickness
The part thickness is grayed out in the Sheet Metal PropertyManager. You can change the value by double-clicking any face of the model. The thickness displays as a blue dimension rather than a black dimension. It is easier to identify if you have dimension names selected, because it is assigned the link value name Thickness.
All features in sheet metal parts that use the thickness value use a link value to link all the feature thicknesses. This makes it easy to globally change the thickness of every feature in the entire sheet metal part.
To save these settings to a template file, you can create a Sheet Metal feature, specify the settings, delete the Sheet Metal features, and then save the file to a template with a special name that repre- sents the settings that you used.
Tip
When a link value is named Thickness, the Extrude dialog box always shows a Link To Thickness option to link the depth of an extrusion to the Thickness link value. If you save a template where Thickness has been created as a link value, then the option is always available to you, regardless of whether or not you are making sheet metal parts. n