Creating a flat of a vase

[JeffMacon]

I am trying to take the surface profile of a vase and make a flat, but it is giving me heck.

 

[im4cad]

I'm almost sure that you can't get a flat pattern for formed parts. It's OK if you have just regular bends in one direction only.

im4cad
Pro Design Services, Inc.

http://www.cadproe.com/pds/home.asp

 

[JeffMacon]

I'm not trying it in sheetmetal though. I am using surfacing.

 

[TheTick]

Really, what you are trying to do is not mathematically possible in terms of simple unfolding to a flat. A vase with toroidal surfaces is a non-Gaussian surface that can not be flattened without distortion.

A Gaussian surface is any surface which can be unfolded to a flat. Basically, this means cones and cylinders and flats joined in any combination along tangents.

There are programs that stamping toolmakers use to develop flats for non-Gaussian forms. They are not part of any CAD package. Toolmakers used to develop such flats experimentally, using sheetmetal marked with a pattern so that the deformation can be charted and back-solved.

All this machinery making modern music can still be open-hearted.

 

[JeffMacon]

With Pro/Engineer, I was able to take half of the vase and make a flat surface. Whether it is mathematically correct or not, it was good enough for the customer.

 

[TheTick]

What was the shape of the vase?

All this machinery making modern music can still be open-hearted.

 

[JeffMacon]

It is shaped kind of like the curve of a hot chick, if that makes sense.

 

[TheTick]

Interesting. I would double-check what sort of assumptions Pro/E is making to develop this. I would be wary of the results. It is not a simple flat development.

It's been 2 years since I was on Pro/E. I do like to lurk in this forum to see what's up. Please excuse me if I'm a little behind the times.

 

[antran7]

I was asked to do a somewhat similar task: have a flat pattern, with a hole pattern in it, and then form it to a complex surface. it was for a speaker grill.

Pro/E did not accurately form the hole pattern into the new complex shape. Rather it made the complex shape, and then projected the hole pattern onto it.

I don't know if this is relavant to your task, but it was interesting. Makes me less confident in flattening complex-shapes and getting an accurate hole pattern in the flat pattern.

 

[Arlin]

Tick,
check this out:

http://www.ptc.com/appserver/it/icm...xtimg/main_v.jsp?im_dbkey=11603&icg_dbkey=382

The flat pattern shown no deformations or the like, though leading me to believe it is not very realistic.