[NX 7] Convert to sheet metal

[cubalibre000]

Hi,
I've a part molded in NX 3 and exported for you in Parasolid.
In NX 7 I use the convert to sheet metal tool, but this tool doesn't recognize that the thickness is not uniform.
I found the problem during the drafting creation where we put the flat-pattern view.
Usually this tool found un-uniform thickness, so via ST and 'Make perpendicular' command I resolve all, but this time no.
Why ?

Thank you...

Using NX 8 and TC8.3

 

[SiW979]

Have you tried to use the sheet metal clean up utility first, then convert it so sheet metal afterwards? Its on the sheet metal drop doen menu

Cheers

Si


Best regards

Simon NX7.5.4.4 MP5 - TC 8

http://www.jcb.com

 

[cubalibre000]

First, as the topic explain, I ask for NX 7 and this utility is not present.
Second, this utility create a dump body.
Third, I ask why 'convert to sheet metal' doesn't advise me of this not uniform thickness. Normally, this command advise me on uniform thickness.
I would like to know the limitation to stay careful in future similar situations.

Thank you...

Using NX 8 and TC8.3

 

[JohnRBaker]

First off, I had NO problem whatsoever with converting your part file to sheetmetal using NX 7.0.1.7 and looking at the results, I can't see any place where there is a nonuniform thickness. Exactly how did this 'problem' manifest itself to you while you claim that you where drafting it?

Now as a test, I opened your file in NX 8.0.3.2 and ran the Sheetmetal Cleanup Utility, but what the results showed me was that the problem is NOT that the original model was NOT of uniform thickness but rather that there was one set of faces at one end of one of the openings which were NOT perpendicular to the faces around the opening and the utility fixed them. And since you already have NX 8.0 installed, I'll let you perform that same test yourself and verify what I found and NOT waste the electrons sending you a copy of a model that you can create yourself.

Which brings us to this notion of someone complaining about a version of NX not having a function that he claims he needs yet he does so while having at his disposal a version of NX which does have exactly what he's looking for. So don't expect a lot of sympathy from this crowd for your supposed 'problems'.

And as for the fact that the Sheetmetal Cleanup Utility results in a 'dumb model', well I'M SORRY but that's just the way 'geometric cleanup utilities' work, period! A valid non-parametric model is worth a lot more than an invalid parametric model any day of the week. So get over it, OK?

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.

 

[cubalibre000]

John,
we use NX 7 and NX 8 is under testing.
We are under TC 8.1 and NX 8 is not supported, so we have to switch to TC 9.1.
Switch from an older TC version to a new, need lot of time and effort, so we will switch in August when all company are closed..
Why I start this topic ?
Because we have lot of NX 3 sheet metal part that are molded with the old and not more supported sheet metal (forming and flattening).
We have lot of flanges cutout with pocket and when flanges aren't at 90°, the cutout produce not-uniform thickness.
Each time I convert this part with the 'convert to sheet metal', the command is completed with an icon in the feature that advise me that there is not-uniform thickness.
This time no and I would like to know why.
Maybe Monday I will check some similar part that without the correction with ST, the 'convert to sheet metal', begun whit the icon described before.

For what the utility do, I don't like that create a dump part.
Why the clean-up utility doesn't produce a parametric feature, linked to the original body, so if I change some feature in the original part, the cleaned dump part reflect this change ?
SolidWorks and Solid Edge work in this manner.

Thank you...

Using NX 8 and TC8.3

 

[JohnRBaker]

Sorry, but just because a cutout does not have perpendicular walls, that does not mean that the model is non-uniform in terms of thickness. That is what the software looks for and since it found that everything was of UNIFORM THICKNESS, it went ahead and converted the model which is then able to be flatten and to create a 2D wireframe flatpattern view.

As for your complaining about the fact that NX 7.0, which you would have been better served if you had taken our advise and waited a few months and installed NX 7.5 instead, you would have already had the Sheetmetal Cleanup Utility. So why even bring it up at this time? Do you honestly think that we're going to go back and add it to NX 7.0?

And as for the clean-up creating a 'dumb part', sorry, but I explained, ALL UTILITIES WHICH REPLACES EDGES AND FACES AT THE TOPOLOGY LEVEL WILL PRODUCE A DUMB MODEL!!! That's just the way it is. Learn to either live with, or create better models to start with which do not require any clean-up. Sorry if that's being blunt, but to do otherwise would be to mislead you since this is the reality of the situation.

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.

 

[cowski]

TGIF

www.nxjournaling.com