mitred corners-sheet metal

[bcolley]

I have not been able to use the mitred corners command because I can not get a tight enough gap. We used to use CadKey for drawing our sheet metal parts and drew our corners in with a .015"-.030" gap. I cannot get any tighter than .060"-.070" with the mitred corners tool. Any ideas?

 

[2Dto3D]

I don't seem to have any trouble with a .010 gap when using the mitered flange tool. If you email me a model that is giving you a problem, I'll see if I can figure out what's missing. Charley Leonard
CSWP

http://www.2Dto3D.com

 

[2Dto3D]

Well, I see the problem. It's kind of a drag. No doubt what's important to you on this part is the outside dimension, and that's why you've got your flange position set that way - naturally. Apparently, the mitered flange tool ignores any corner relief setting you have, so if you are controlling the dimension from the outside of the flange, the material wants to crash into itself at the corner unless your gap is big enough so that no relief is needed. If you're controlling it from the inside, it lets you have tiny gaps, because no interference is caused. It may be that we're both missing some way of make it relief the affected corners (hopefully, someone else will reply to this if that's the case), but in the mean time, here's a somewhat ugly but effective work-around:

In the miter flange dialog box, choose the flange position option to control the dimension from the inside of the flange (the middle box). Then change The dimensions of your base flange, subtracting twice your material thickness (if your flange is on both sides of the part, as yours is). If you want, you can do this with equations so that if the material thickness changes in the future, the outside dimension of the part will stay the same. In your case, Brooke, those equations are as follows:

"D1@Sketch1" = 20.485-(2*"Thickness@Sheet-Metal1&quot
"D2@Sketch1"=12.917-(2*"Thickness@Sheet-Metal1&quot

I have updated the part you sent me as above and am sending it back to you.

Hope that helps. Charley Leonard
CSWP

http://www.2Dto3D.com

 

[2Dto3D]

Addendum to my previous reply. In the work-around, I left out doing the same thing to the flange dimensions.

Brooke, I'm resending the file. Here are the equations I forgot:

"D2@Sketch18" = .625-(2*"Thickness@Sheet-Metal1&quot
"D1@Sketch18" = .7-(2*"Thickness@Sheet-Metal1&quot Charley Leonard
CSWP

http://www.2Dto3D.com

 

[2Dto3D]

oops again!

"D2@Sketch18" = .625-(2*"Thickness@Sheet-Metal1&quot

should be

"D2@Sketch18" = .625-"Thickness@Sheet-Metal1"

because in this case you only need to subtract one time the thickness. Sorry Charley Leonard
CSWP

http://www.2Dto3D.com

 

[bcolley]

Thanks, It is not a huge problem for me to draw things on the inside. Especially if it lets me get tight corners. I didn't think to try using that option.
Thanks!