NX 8.5: Designing a canoe. How to make a flat template from a curved surface?

[blindheim]

I am going to build a canoe from plywood panels and am trying to make the templates for the cut outs.

I have made a model in NX, using studio splines running along all joints between panels. I then used the swept function to make the flat surfaces between all splines. My problem now is that I will need to transform these surfaces to a flat template to use to cut the plywood panels. I've tried to used some of the functions in sheet metal, but were not able to select the surfaces. I then added thickness to the surfaces, but then I got some other error when trying the flat pattern function..

Any tips?

 

[blindheim]

And here is a sketch of the design.. Hope someone can help me with this

Thank you

 

[KhimaniMohiki]

You can flatten them using Metaform in Sheetmetal

Khimani Mohiki
Design Engineer - Aston Martin
NX8.5

 

[blindheim]

Thank you!
It took some time to compute the transformation, however it seems like it worked using Metaform

 

[Toost]

John, when i read this thread i came to think about the old ( and retired) Flat Pattern feature,
i then opened , in NX9, an partfile from NX6 in which i had used the Flat Pattern feature and noted that the Flat pattern Feature/ function still exists, i can create new Flat Patterns in NX9 in this specific part as long as i don't switch to another application.

Is there some way to re-activate the Flat Pattern feature ? ( enable the switch to modeling and back to update the existing flat pattern)
- It is quite handy in some cases, like the example above.

Regards,
Tomas

 

[JohnRBaker]

Other than the 'backdoor' that you found, I'm not aware of any other way to access the old code, but I'll ask the next time I talk with any of the Sheet Metal people, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

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.