Punch Cad'ders,

I'm attempting to do some simple bends using the bend tool (as if it were sheet metal), but the piece I'm trying to bend goes all wrong! Any idea about why, or what I can do to fix it?

The first picture shows the direction I want the bend to go- which seems fine,

BUT then,

The second image then shows the part of the sheet behind also bending- and adding futher material- in an arc! is this right, or is it a bug of some sort?

Tom

Err.... Illogical captain!

If it started life as a flat piece of sheet metal, why on earth would it do that? The first two bends worked as expected. Perhaps the model should have had constraints, to stop it from warping? But then would I get an error message?

But Scotty, that makes absolutely no sense at all! :eek:

You can't just grow new material can you? If I were to set out a piece of paper, draw an outline to it then fold it, this wouldn't happen right? It's the bend tool! NOT the revolve extrude tool right?

Look- here's the profile it was 'bent' from; (see pic)

(the pink, vertical construction line was where the bend should have been. And, bending that part to the right, around this line, shouldn't affect the adjacent surface right? (the adjacent surface I need to bend the other way- towards the camera)

Essentially I am making a piece of sheet metal that holds a 2" x 2" table leg. Nick from SanFran reckons that Shark will do sheet metal-so I'm putting this to the test, and failing! :(

Tom.
I've done this, in ViaCAD.

Martin.

Much seems to depend on which end of the axis line you click first, and also if you press Ctrl to flip the bend, as to where the radius is placed on the item.

Martin.

I thought varying the order of creation might improve things, but it's way too inconsistent. VC wouldn't even bend both ears of the same part for me, and there's no sane way to bend up the other using the same axis. I tried the same things in the Shark demo, and things were marginally better, ie at least both ears bent! In my view, it's a waste of time trying to lay it out first and work it from the layout with either VC or Shark. Because there's no way to dictate which side of the part will lift off the workplane, I spent way too much time projecting the crease layout onto new workplanes. Any "sheet metal tools" suite is going to need much better ways to define workplanes and which part of the sheet layout is going to bend and end up on them, in addition to material allowance calculation and bend relief cutouts.

That's good Martin. Thanks! :D

How did you extrude from the vertices? Or did you just draw at one end and extrude along the vertex from the back?

I would really like a flatten tool here- so the sheet could be laid flat- making a 2D drawing easy to do. Murray- I feel your pain mate! :D:D

Perhaps I'm asking for too much? :confused:

Tom,

As I am now into the movie business :D

http://rapidshare.com/files/243741858/bend.avi


- Steve

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You gotta have a laugh right? Especially on a Friday afternoon! :D

Cheers Steve! :)