Frame
Steel tube, aluminium extrusion, timber or dowel along sketch lines or the edges of a box, each member its own part, mitred or butted where they meet, with a cut list.
- Frame AdvancedPart Studio toolbar
| SchoolCAD | Onshape | Fusion | SOLIDWORKS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frame | Frame | – | Weldments Structural Member |
Frame makes a frame from standard lengths of material: steel square or round tube, angle and flat bar, aluminium T-slot extrusion, dressed pine or dowel. A member runs along each line you pick, each one its own part, and they are joined where they meet, as a fabricator would cut them. The cut list says how long to cut each member and how to cut its ends. It works like Frame in Onshape and Weldments (Structural Member) in SOLIDWORKS.
Frame is an Advanced tool.
Two ways to lay out a frame#
- Lines in a sketch. Draw the frame's lines, such as a rectangle for a picture frame or a gate. Tick the sketch. Lines in several sketches (on different planes) make a frame in 3D.
- The edges of a box. Model a box the size of the stool, table or trolley, then click its edges, or click a face for all of its edges. Select the box before clicking Frame and its top edges and upright edges are picked for you. Each member sits in the corner inside the box, so the frame is the box's size. The box is used up.
Bent tube and rings#
Draw arcs as well as lines, and lines and arcs that run smoothly into each other (an arc drawn tangent to a line) are one bent member, the way a tube is bent on a tube bender: a U for a stool's sides, a rounded rectangle, the curve of a chair. A shape that comes back to its start, or a circle, is a ring (rolled, its ends joined). The cut list gives the length to cut before bending (along the tube's middle) and each bend, such as 2 × 90° bends R50.
- A bend's radius is measured to the middle of the tube, as a tube bender's is. With On the line: Inside or Outside, it is the arc's radius less or more half the tube.
- An arc too tight for the profile is refused. A tube bent tighter than about one and a half times its width is flagged: most tube benders need a radius of at least twice the tube's width.
- Members meet a bent member as they meet a straight one. One ending on its side where it is bending is cut to the shape of the curve.
How to use it#
- Draw the lines, or model the box.
- Click Frame.
- Tick the sketch, or click the box's edges.
- Choose the Profile, such as SHS 25 × 25 × 1.6 (square steel tube), and the Corners.
- Click ✓.
Options#
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Lines | The sketches whose lines, arcs and circles become members. Construction lines are left out. |
| Edges | The straight edges of a part picked in the view. Clear unpicks them. |
| Profile | The material and its size: steel square (SHS), rectangular (RHS) and round (CHS) tube, flat bar, angle, aluminium T-slot, dressed pine and dowel. Custom size sets your own. |
| Corners | Mitre: both members cut at half the angle, like a picture frame. Butt: one member runs through and the other is cut square against it. |
| On the line | For sketch lines: the line runs down the Centre of the member, or the member is Inside or Outside the shape with its edge on the line. |
| On the edges | For a box's edges: each member In the corner inside the box, flush with its faces, or Centred on the edge. |
| Keep the part the edges are on | Keeps the box (hide it to see the frame). Off: the box is used up. |
| End caps on the open ends | A plate over each open end of a tube or extrusion (the feet of a stool, the top of a leg), the tube's outside shape. The member is made shorter by the cap, so the frame keeps its size. Steel caps on steel tube, plastic on T-slot. |
| Cap thickness | How thick the end caps are, in mm. |
| Gussets in the corners | A triangular plate in each inside corner, its two legs along the members' inside faces, in the middle of the members: two at each leg of a stool, one each side of a T. Plywood on a timber frame. |
| Gusset size / Gusset thickness | How long the gusset's legs are, and how thick it is, in mm. A gusset is made smaller where there is not room for it. |
| Turn | Turns the profile about its length, such as 90° to stand a rectangular tube or a board on its edge. |
How the members meet#
- Two at a corner: mitred or butted, as you choose.
- Three or more at a corner (a table's two rails and its leg): the most upright member (the leg) runs through and the others are cut against it.
- One ending on the side of another (a T, a brace or a cross rail): it is cut against the other's face.
- Round tube ends are cut to the shape of the tube they meet, the "fish mouth" a welder cuts so the joint fits.
- Two in a straight line are cut square where they meet.
Tips#
- The parts list and cut list give each member's length and its ends, such as 45° mitre both ends or square both ends, grouped so identical members are counted together.
- Steel members are costed by weight, and timber and dowel by the metre.
- A brace across a corner is a line from one member to another: it is cut against both.
- Use Fillet or Hole afterwards on any member, as on any part.