Designing "Living Hinges" w/SW 2004

[ttx]

Hello Solid Works users,
The company that I work for is currently doing an evaluation of SW 2004. Our main CAD system is Pro/E. I am wondering if SW 2004 is capable of creating living hinges for plastic part design? In Pro/E, this feature is referred to as a "spinal bend". In Pro/E, you are able to create these hinge features and bend the part without making an assembly of separate parts. Does this sound familiar? I am interested in getting an answer from industry professionals as opposed to CAD resellers.

Thanks in advance,

Regards,

JW

 

[Theophilus]

It's not a feature that I know of. However, you could probably do this if you build your hinged features to be dependent on a sketch. For example, you could create a sketch representing the hinge radius. Build the lid (or whatever you're hinging) based on the sketch, then change the sketch to move the hinge.

You can probably even have configurations that would drive this--one configuration open in the molded state and one in the closed state--whatever you want.




Jeff Mowry
Industrial Designhaus, LLC

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

 

[ttx]

Thanks for the reply.
If there is a way to do it - great! It doesn't have to be a super simple procedure - I just need to be able to do it without breaking up the part into a assembly.

I appreciate your input.

Regards,

JW

 

[ShaggyPE]

The solution that theophilus stated is good. I have recently done someting similar where I simply created a plane at an angle to the primary plane. One hinge half was created on the main plane, the other on the angled plane. I have a design table to control the angle. This works well for the steel piano hinges I use. I too did not want to break this purchased assembly into separate parts.