Material Library in V18 (bend radius)

[Uglybob]

Hello!

I recently upgraded my seat of SE from 17 to 18 and I have been having a problem with my material library.

As Solid Edge sometimes likes to do things with sheet-metal flats that aren't necessary, my predecessors here started using a .001 radius on all materials, and varying the neutral factor as required for keeping the correct draw for our brake tooling.

It works well for nearly every application.

The problem I am having is this: With the new version, every time I load the material database, the bend radius has reverted to the material thickness for every gauge. Is this caused by one of the material properties?

In version 17 I used a generic "sheet metal" material I created that had no material properties at all. I left the material properties intact on 18 so I could get mass, and perhaps stress testing in the future (should I ever learn it).

 

[donyoung]

Hi,

IMHO works as designed or 'what a disapointment'. SE will take
for the 'bend radius', 'material thickness' a.s.o those values that
have been specified within the template. Going into the new
material table --> gauge the values shown will those 'default values'
mentioned as long as no gauge is specified. As soon as you select one
of the gauges the values will change and when applied to the model
they will override the default ones.

So IMHO you can define the 'generic sheet metal' with all gauges neccessary
and assign your values to every gauge and add it to the material
table and predefine the normal.psm with this material. Otherwise you
will get the predefined values that have been defined for a material
in the material database -- you may, however, change those values and
update the database -- not a nice task.

dy

 

[Uglybob]

Thank you, I was afraid I would get an answer I didn't like.

Thanks again so much for your help!

 

[Uglybob]

There needs to be a spreadsheet for this...

It seems to be doing the same thing as it was.

I've made a "Sheet Metal" material, and set up a gauge for every type of material that we model in.

For example: AL .063 5052-H32 where I specify radius, thickness, and neutral factors.

I've set that material as the default to open in the normal.psm file. When I go to the gauge tab on the material database, only the pre-selected gauge retained the .001 bend radius. When I pick another gauge, it reverts again to the material thickness. Also, when I pick the original gauge selected that retained the radius a second time, it's reverted as well.

Did I miss something in your instructions that would be helping me here? This is a bit frustrating. I suppose keying in a .001 radius every time I create a part wouldn't be a huge problem, but I like to streamline things as much as I can.

Thanks again!

 

[toffeet]

You can save the different gage settings to the material library but they are not linked to a specific material. When you create a new gage setting make sure that you click "add to library".

There are two options:
Option 1: Add the different materials and gage settings to the material library. When you create a new sheet metal part you will have to select your material and gage separately.
Option 2: This is the one I use. I created separate user templates for all the major materials I use for sheet metal parts. This way I'm sure that every one in the office use the correct gage settings for a specific material. There is also no need to select the material and gage, it's already the default in my template.

Solid Edge V18 SP5 on WinXP SP2

 

[fredericmenage]

Hi,

1) open a new part file
2) open the material table
3) select one gauge, change the radius, and click 'update il library'
4) repeat 3) for each gauge

Fred

 

[Uglybob]

Everything I specify about the gauge gets saved, besides the bend radius. Gauge specific nuetral factor, thickness; everything.

I've triplechecked to make sure I saved my changes. They are in fact changed, but whenever I start a new sheetmetal drawing and it loads the material table for me to pick my material--it's reverted to material thickness for bend radius.

 

[Uglybob]

I'm not sure if my typing is acutally getting across what is going on here.

Here is my material list, it only consists of "Sheet Metal"
I copied the (none) material to make sure it wasn't a property of the metal that was causing this change.

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/9333/materiallist8ex.jpg

Here is my gauge list. I've changed all neutral factors, bend radii, and thicknesses to reflect what I need. When I try to access them once I close the material list down and open it again--all the radii revert to the material thickness though I have saved them.

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/9333/materiallist8ex.jpg

 

[Uglybob]

Sorry I forgot to put the gauge list in my clipboard and hastily pasted over a copy of the material list. Here is my gauge list:

http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/9637/gaugelist5ge.jpg

 

[fredericmenage]

Hi,

Open your template. Open the variable table. Is there a formula that controls the bend radius. If that's the case, you need to delete that formula.

HTH

Fred

 

[Uglybob]

Fredericmenage,

Thanks, that sounds like something that should do the trick. I'll try it right this second!

 

[Uglybob]

No formula in the bend radius field, just the .001 that I've specified. If I load a different material, it changes again back to material thickness.

 

[Uglybob]

Not material, gauge is what I should have said.

 

[donyoung]

Hi,

if you updated your material so that all gauges are set to
a value that you would like to have it then the database
will have them but -- the value shown in the the pull down
for bend radius a.s.o. will be set to what has been specified
as default value in the *variable* table for the *template* because
when the material is initially opened there is no material
specified (the template will have a default value of 3mm or 1/8 inch
as delivered) When the material is set the initial gauge values remain.
The gauge's pulldowns when openend should, however, contain among
others the values you once have set. The values are in ascending numerical
order.

dy

 

[Uglybob]

Thanks everyone for your help!

I made a formula in the bend radius variable field in the template to force the radius to be the absolute vaulue of .001 at all times. This has made that radius changing itself in the material library inconsequential.

Unfortunatley I purged all the materials from the library in my search for the source of my problem... anyone know how to get them back without copying the library from the SE CD and entering all the gauges again?