Flatten / unfold a Developed Surface

[PrinceAssociates]

I am trying to flatten / unfold a developed surface to create a pattern for laser cutting a flat sheet of metal that will then be bent to shape.

I have tryed the unfold tool but it comes up with an error.

Any help would be appreciated.

I am using V5 R14

 

[solid7]

What kind of error? Have you mapped the geometry to a surface? Have you read the online documentation first?




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[catiajim]

Flattening of Developable Surfaces in V5 will only work with Ruled Surfaces. We have noticed even that surfaces that are technically "ruled" aren't always detected as Ruled. They need to be created using the Sweep function.

 

[PrinceAssociates]

I've found the error is being caused by an extrapolated surface. Is there a way I can get Catia to unfold it or do I need to alter my multisections surface.

 

[PrinceAssociates]

I've redrawn the surface and can now unfold the surface. Thanks for the help.

Regards
Steven

 

[JacobL]

Unfolding a surface can often be impossible because of overlaps in the material, as well as cut-ins.
Imagine a box on a surface with a fillet in the corners. When you try to unfold it you have overlaps you can solve only when treating the material as cloth. This approach is possible (not always perfect) using the composite workbench module, which has no course or tutorial