A caveat on the 'SB Convert to Sheet Metal' feature 1

To find the 'Cleanup Utility' in NX 7.5, while in the NX Sheet Metal module, go to...

Tools -> Cleanup Utility...

Note that starting with NX 8.5 we've replaced the traditional dialog-based 'Convert to Sheet Metal' function with one utilizing a 'Wizard' approach which takes the user step-by-step thru the process including offering an optional step to 'Cleanup' the model.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

Nope, that 'Cleanup Utility' trick doesn't work either. It's kind of neat how the trick tries to dumb-down the part, where you can specify the real material thickness, and something called "Sliver Tolerance" (I went as high as 10% of my part thickness, but still no dice).

Even after that, and then applying 'SB Convert to Sheet Metal', I can't get most parts to unfold. Some bends unfold, but most others don't.

I am afraid that 'SB Convert to Sheet Metal' is not quite ready for our use yet. Let's hope that some of these problems are solved before we get a "Wizard" that doesn't work either.

Going back to NX6 to unfold for a while. The "forming/flattening" tools in NX6 work fine.

Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community..

[green]To the Toolmaker, your nice little cartoon drawing of your glass looks cool, but your solid model sucks. Do you want me to fix it, or are you going to take all week to get it back to me so I can get some work done?[/green]

The new 'Convert to Sheet Metal' wizard (NX 8.5) only offers the 'Cleanup' step as a purely OPTIONAL item. And in fact, the use of the 'wizard' itself is optional as the old dialog-based 'Convert' is still available. And on top of that, starting in NX 8.5 we've also added to the NX Sheet Metal task an 'Optimize Face' function similar to what we've had in Synchronous Modeling for some time, where it will actually replace non-planar and non-cylindrical faces (B-surfaces) with nice clean canonical or analytic faces. It's recommended that you run this function first as it too contains an option to 'Clean' the body before proceeding. It will also provide you a detailed report of the actions taken which can help you better understand why a model was initially unsuitable and which might help you avoid these issues in the future if these model were created in-house.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

I guess I would expect NX to avoid or solve the problems NX is having, and not erroneously report back to me that a part has been converted to sheetmetal, when actually it has NOT been converted to sheetmetal. If I can't unfold it, it is not a sheetmetal part to me, so I don't really care what NX calls it, eh?

Wizards shouldn't be available to use if the functions they rely on don't work.

Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community..

[green]To the Toolmaker, your nice little cartoon drawing of your glass looks cool, but your solid model sucks. Do you want me to fix it, or are you going to take all week to get it back to me so I can get some work done?[/green]

Hence the further development of such tools as 'Optimize Face'.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

How thick are the parts that you are converting to sheet metal? In my experience with NX 7.5, we have had a lot of trouble with parts that are over or around 1" thick.

Dream Team - VMH International
NX, TeamCenter, Solid Edge

capnhook said:

If I can't unfold it, it is not a sheetmetal part to me...

Click to expand...

Note that NOT every Sheet Metal 'part' can be unfolded. This includes models which include such Sheet Metal features as Louvers, Dimples, Beads, Drawn Cutouts as well as the Advanced Flange applied to a non-linear edge. Generally, these types of features must be either 'stamped' or 'drawn'. The 'Convert to Sheet Metal' function only assures that the model meets the topological criteria for a 'sheet metal' model, NOT that it can be 'unfolded'. Note that 'sheet metal' parts modeled 100% in NX Sheet Metal but which consist of only Louvers, Beads, Dimples, etc, while they are still considered to be a Sheet Metal model, then cannot be unfolded.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

Hello Capnhook,

Could you post a model (can be a fictional one) that you have trouble with?
I would like to see one to find out what exactly is causing the conversion to fail. Sometimes little stupid things can still ruin the conversion and still prevent it from flattening, which of course doesn't make much sense.

I would also suggest to log IR's on the models that are bothering you. Converting parts to sheet metal parts is an ongoing effort in NX so your models could contribute to better conversion tools.

2x NX8.5.1.3 Mach Design
on win7 64bit and MBP MacOS 10.8.3
NX Beta Tester
1x Solid Edge ST2

Parts that won't unfold have been submitted to GTAC, IR's have been logged. I can't post any here. I have a work-around that gives me back the NX6 forming/flattening tools that work, but these are being taken away when moving to NX7.5. I don't know whether the old tools that work will be available again when/if we move to NX8.0.X.X of to NX 8.5.X.X.

To the untrained eye, it looks like we have to look for another solution to unfolding sheet metal parts.

Again, if I can't unfold it, it's not a sheetmetal part, whatever Siemens wants to call it this month.....

Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community..

[green]To the Toolmaker, your nice little cartoon drawing of your glass looks cool, but your solid model sucks. Do you want me to fix it, or are you going to take all week to get it back to me so I can get some work done?[/green]

Again, if I can't unfold it, it's not a sheetmetal part, whatever Siemens wants to call it this month.....

I fully agree with that.



2x NX8.5.1.3 Mach Design
on win7 64bit and MBP MacOS 10.8.3
NX Beta Tester
1x Solid Edge ST2

I want to explain my last remark a bit...

The result of a "successful" convert to sheet metal should always be unfold-able by the software.

But of course you can always ad non-sheet metal features to a sheet metal model and then make it unflatten-able. Now each release NX sheet metal is getting better and better at flattening the unflatten-able features. Some good stuff came in NX8 and NX8.5 (like stiffening ribs across bends that remain flatten-able) and about NX9 I'm not allowed to say anything...

2x NX8.5.1.3 Mach Design
on win7 64bit and MBP MacOS 10.8.3
NX Beta Tester
1x Solid Edge ST2

....and about NX9 I'm not holding my breath. We need a solution now, not two versions from now, if tools that work are being taken away and replaced with tools that don't work.

Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community..

[green]To the Toolmaker, your nice little cartoon drawing of your glass looks cool, but your solid model sucks. Do you want me to fix it, or are you going to take all week to get it back to me so I can get some work done?[/green]

Then may I suggest that you contact GTAC and provide them examples of your parts which you say NX 'converted' yet are still not able to be 'flattened'. If the problem is in the NX code itself, then perhaps development might be able to fix it and issue an update.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

GTAC was contacted, parts were sent. Pretty sure this is a hot topic around the watercooler there.

I'm not holding my breath for NX9, I have to look for another unfolding/flattening solution before we are given another set of new tools that don't work.


Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community..

[green]To the Toolmaker, your nice little cartoon drawing of your glass looks cool, but your solid model sucks. Do you want me to fix it, or are you going to take all week to get it back to me so I can get some work done?[/green]

Post your PR number so anyone with the same problem can "pile on" and raise the priority level with GTAC.

www.nxjournaling.com

Can you please provide the PR numbers!!!!!

If you don't feel comfortable posting that information on a public website, please email them to me so that the appropriate people can follow-up with what you're having a problem with (as for my email address, just take the name I use here on Eng-Tips, add a couple of periods where it makes sense, add the appropriate email extension).

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.