Is UG capable to help with this simple problem?

[opetrenko1]

I need to generate flattened sheetmetall curves for a simple layout shown on the picture:

a rectangular hvac duct is turning around a corner as it moves in the wall from floor to ceiling. To minimize pressure loss I want it to have smooth radial turns. But UG capabilities seem quite limiting.

I would greatly appreciate any advise to overcome these obstacles as I try to build the sweep and get drawings of the flattened sides to a shop:

1. can't wrap the sweep guide curve around the corner as UG is incapable to wrap around cylinder and two planes(walls).

2. as I sweep the duct turns sideways as you can see on the pictures. Can it be controlled to stay vertical?

3. Main problem: how to get flattened sides on a drawing?

another problem: ug can't maintain associativity for many features, meaning I can't just revise original sketch to quickly adjust the results - have to redo the monkey work for a tiniest change...

Thanks for any advise!

 

[uwam2ie]

Question:
which nx version are you running?
Are you in Nx Sheetmetal or in modelling (sweeping)?
Have you ever looked at metaform?

 

[JohnRBaker]

Can you provide an actual sample part file?

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[opetrenko1]

I'm running NX7
Here is the part that was shown on an image.
Scale and dims are off, as I'm just trying to figure this out conceptually.
Thank you for your time and help!

 

[JohnRBaker]

Here's the approach that I would take (see attached file):

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[opetrenko1]

Wow, John!
this looks great!
Thank you so much !

Would you comment what composite curve and unwrap curve features do here?
Also, if you could tell me how to generate drawings of the flattened surfaces - it would be great.
I know Start->All Applications -> Sheet metal -> Forming Flattening
But then Tools -> Flat Pattern will generates curves only for one of many faces.
How to get a drawing or several of these curves lying flat on it? (their orientation in space generally is at an angle to coordinate axises)

Thank you!!!

 

[JohnRBaker]

Composite Curves give me a set of curves which I could translate to create the rest of the curves which are on the other planar face. The Unwarp allowed me to map the tangent edge of that other planar face back to the original 'sketch'.

As for flattening this shape, you're going to have to do that one face at a time.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.