Wraping a sheet around a solid - Am I pushing it???

[JonSelby]

I suspect that I may be asking too much, but here goes ...
Does anyone know how to wrap a sheet around a solid object?

The sheet naturally has underlying geometric curves so the ability to wrap the basic curves would be acceptable.
I have however tried the 'wrap/unwrap curves' feature but this only works on uniform cylinders or cones.
Also for information the solid has been created from an extrude with a 'soft blend'.

If it helps then have a look at the image attached - orange is the sheet - green is the solid.

It seems an obvious thing to want to do (if you have a flexible pcb or sticker or rubber membrane for instance) but I suspect the underlying code is far from straight-forward.

Anyone with a good solution to this will be hailed an NX hero in my books!!!

Cheers,
Jon

 

[jerry1423]

It's possible but it looks like you made need either the "die engineering" or "studio free form" license to do it.
I am certain that someone else will have a better answer for you.

 

[uwam2ie]

in the (old) advanced sheet metall tools theres something called metaform or since NX5 you can go to analysis -> one step analysis - both will wrap the boundary curves from the plain sheetbody around the wrapped solid faces as curves.

 

[cowski]

There are also some physical limitations involved here. Even if the orange sheet is a very thin sticker, you will not be able to apply it to a double curved surface (your green surface) without distorting it, ie the sticker will wrinkle or rip.

 

[JonSelby]

I've not looked into the Analysis tools or metaform stuff but will have a hunt and see what I can do.
Also I can live with a certain amount of wrinkling.

Thanks for the leads ... I'll post again with results!
Cheers,

 

[hudson888]

Is is am obvious kind of thing to want to do, but let's face it it is hard to do just based on the maths of the geometry. The results would also vary depending on how you orient the flat pattern to the surface and what you treat as your fixed origin point.

There are modules within the advance sheet metal flat patterning that use extra licenses to unwrap complex surfaces in order to create flat patterns. Maybe looking into that and/or tacking the problem in the reverse might be something that you could look into.

Best Regards

Hudson

www.jamb.com.au

Nil Desperandum illegitimi non carborundum

 

[JonSelby]

tacking the problem in the reverse might be something that you could look into

I did wonder about doing it in reverse as you could model the curved sheet and flatten it back. This drawing dimensions were not rounded to any reasonable numbers.
Maybe I shouldn't be so worried about this as I could just set all dimensions in the drawing to round to 1 or 2 decimal places and be done with it!!

 

[MickyV007]

Or if you have sheet metal license, then maybey you can try the SM Punch function, and use the solid as the punch?



Best regards,

Michäël.

NX4.0.4.2 MP10 / TCE 9.1.3.8_build_0711 / NX6.0.2.8 / NX7.0.0.9

Belgium

 

[hudson888]

JonSelby,

I'd warn you that you need a quite specialised sheet metal forming/flattening license to get this to work.

However as for dimensioning flat patterns on a drawing I never bother. I simply offer the manufacturer a DXF file to cut it out to.

Best Regards

Hudson

www.jamb.com.au

Nil Desperandum illegitimi non carborundum