AutoDesk Inventor Training Sheet Metal – getting started (part 3)
Welcome back to part three of our AutoDesk Inventor Training Sheet Metal introduction. We’d left off experimenting with our primary plate. From the surface panel on the 3D Model tab, we applied a boundary patch. Now, let’s activate the Thicken tool.
AutoDesk Inventor Training Sheet Metal
Select the direction for the thicken. As you see we have a 1mm default thickness in the value field. One parameter of sheet metal is a universal thickness across the entire part. I’m going to leave 1mm here and click OK. Now let’s hide this surface with a right click on its node, and unselecting Visibility.
AutoDesk Inventor Training Sheet Metal
Finally, time to get to the Sheet Metal tab! Activate the Flange command.
AutoDesk Inventor Training Sheet Metal
Our first job is to select an edge in the graphic area from which our flange will be based. But when I try to select an edge, nothing happens. Let’s figure out why. Cancel out of the Flange dialog window. Let’s click on Sheet Metal Rules.
AutoDesk Inventor Training Sheet Metal
AutoDesk Inventor Training – Sheet Metal
Let me draw your attention to a check box on this dialog window: Use Thickness from URL. Here, it’s checked, and the thickness of our rule is set at .5mm. As you remember, our plate has a thickness of 1 mm. So, this is why we can’t create the flange from our primary plate; the thickness is not of the same value, and sheet metal requires universal thickness. (Uh, btw, the plate we create in sheet metal is called a primary plate. I forgot to mention that earlier!) Let’s click the Pencil icon on the Sheet Metal Defaults dialog window to launch the Sheet Metal Rules Editor:
AutoDesk Inventor Training Sheet Metal
The appropriate area of the Style and Standard Editor opens:
AutoDesk Inventor Training Sheet Metal
Note in the tree on the left, that under Default, the Default_mm option is selected. On the right hand pane, you see where the thickness value is set at .5 millimeters. Let’s cancel out of the rules window. Double click on the thickness value and change it from 1 mm to to .5 mm and click accept.
We are ready to activate the Flange command again!
AutoDesk Inventor Training Sheet Metal
AutoDesk Inventor Training – Sheet Metal
I’ll select the edge at the bottom left of the graphic area. As you see, now we are able to create the flange, since we’re both able to select it and we get a preview. Click OK to accept it!
AutoDesk Inventor Training Sheet Metal
Above is our flange, with Flange 1 our new node added to the tree. But, let’s get rid of it and try another method for creating the flange. I’ll select the three new entities we just created in the three, with a shift-select (Boundary Patch 1, Thicken 1 and Flange 1), then right-click and select Delete.
AutoDesk Inventor Training Sheet Metal
I don’t want to delete the consumed sketches and features, so I’ll uncheck this box (it’s checked by default). (Consumed sketches and features are those which become children-nodes of a feature they are used to create). Now, let’s create the same primary plate but via a different method. I’ll activate the Face command on the Sheet Metal tab.
My profile is preselected automatically (that’s the rectangle sketch). Check out the three tabs of the Face tool (Shape, Unfold Options, and Bend). None of these offer a way to adjust the thickness of the feature. The reason is that the thickness is set universally for the entire part via the rule we saw above. Let’s click OK to accept our plate, and then activate the Flange tool once again. This time we’re able to select an edge without any problem. Click OK to accept the Flange feature.
In closing, I wanted to mention that one way to change the thickness of your part is us to uncheck the “Use thickness from rule” option that we talked about a moment ago. When this box is unchecked, you can enter a value for your sheet metal in the field next to the check-box, which is no longer greyed out. This concludes our series of articles introducing you to working in the sheet metal environment; see you back soon.
AutoDesk Inventor Training Sheet Metal by Video-Tutorials.Net
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