Bend Alternatives?

[hydroeon]

I'm currently working on a very simple looking part, furthermore, it is made in a relatively simple way i.e. using a sheet of 15mm aluminium that is then locked in place while a special tool cuts along the top (through the top layer NOT from the top) of the entire sheet with a certain pattern. THEN, this sheet is bent in a certain way (think mac mini/ cd player) Due to the NDA, I cannot post pics but I'm having big issues with it. (it is a hifi product)

The problem:

The sheet is bent, so I cannot cut along because once I attempt to fold it again it can't (solidworks "uniform" limitation)

So, while a big pain in the backside, it is possible to use the swept cut feature instead...or is it? (wouldn't this make the sheet non-uniform and thus not work?)

To make matters worse, I'm on SP3 2009 x64 (so swept cut wouldn't work anyway?)

However, if swept cut did work, would it make any difference?

Basically I'd like to find out a workaround or another way of achieving this...

Any advice is appreciated

Thanks

 

[rstupplebeen]

Try to create an simplified model and post it.

Rob Stupplebeen

 

[hydroeon]

sorry I meant to ask is there anyway of achieving this with a metal part?

 

[dgowans]

Can you use a Flex feature rather than sheet metal?

 

[hydroeon]

SORTED!

The answer to my question is NO. Basically it is not technically considered a sheet metal even though it will be made from a sheet of metal. (for example one could make a cube out of a sheet of metal..is it still sheet metal?)

So the easiest way to proceed is to simply extrude along a path...turns out the edge flanges will actually be welded parts anyway..so its a solid.

Hope this helps people too.

Thanks everyone

So NO, it is NOT possible to have a sheet metal part that is non-uniform for WHATEVER reason