solidworks 3

[vansamson]

In solidworks, is there a way to detect if a curved surface can be developed into a flat surface or not?

(Outside of the SHEET METAL command to FOLD and UNFOLD) is there a way to develop or unfold into a flat surface a developable curved surface or the developable curved surface of a solid object? My purpose is to find out the true flat profile of a curved surface.

 

[ShaggyPE]

blankworks

-Dustin
Professional Engineer
Certified SolidWorks Professional
Certified COSMOSWorks Designer Specialist
Certified SolidWorks Advanced Sheet Metal Specialist

 

[TheTick]

Gaussian curvature is what you are after. UG has this. Don't recall seeing it in SW.

 

[vansamson]

Thanks, anyway, guys. I'm into simplifying some common designs with complex curved surfaces, and I wanted to replace these designs with simple curved surfaces that can flatten out--with plain sheet metal. I saw the feature in a boat hull designing feature and thought Solidworks might have a similar command.

 

[vansamson]

In Solidworks, when you click on the Toolbox, Structural Steel command, the first choices are Ansi inch, BIS, CISC, ISO, DIN and other standards. Is there an add-in to Solidworks that incorporates Australian structural steel standards? Or is there a shortcut way to incorporate the Australian standards to the Toolbox, Structural steel command?

By the way, thanks to the guys who cared to answer my other previous questions. You're a big help.

 

[steinmini]

Australian standards are available as a choice in the 2010 at least for the toolbox but you can add a custom weldments/structural steel library folder (manually). Prog files\SW\Data\ make new folder and create subfolders for "round", "square" etc and make 2D drawings, save as library feature. There is an explanation in a video tutorial on youtube, if I recall right, it's the FSAE frame-cage-chasis...

Further:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeHQRby2Yr0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN_00HcEPls

Hope I'm not missing the point :~/

 

[TheTick]

For creating Gaussian (unfoldable, decal friendly) surfaces, you can use any combination of the following:
[ul][li]cylinders[/li]
[li]cones[/li]
[li]planes (duh!)[/li]
[li]any 2D profile extruded without draft[/li][/ul]

If you connect sections of cylinders and cones, you must do it along a meridian edge (= straight edge parallel to revolution axis).

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

vansamson

Welcome to the forums, but please be aware of two points of forum 'etiquette';

1) New and unrelated questions should be raised in a new thread. Tack on questions can make the thread very difficult to follow, and searching for similar topics is also made harder.

2) Meaningful thread titles should be used. This is a SolidWorks forum, so having the title SolidWorks doesn't help when searching for a particular topic.