Sheet metal
Make a sheet metal part from a sketch, flat or folded, with its thickness and bend radius, ready for flanges, hems and the laser.
- Sheet metal AdvancedPart Studio toolbar
| SchoolCAD | Onshape | Fusion | SOLIDWORKS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sheet metal | Sheet metal model | Flange | Base Flange/Tab |
Sheet metal makes a part from sheet: aluminium, steel or tin plate, cut flat on a laser or guillotine and folded in a bending brake. It works like Sheet metal model in Onshape and Base Flange in SOLIDWORKS.
SchoolCAD keeps a sheet metal part as its flat pattern: the walls of the part, laid out flat, joined by the bends. So you can always see it flat (Flat pattern), the laser cut file is the true flat shape with every bend line, and the bend table says how to fold it.
Sheet metal is an Advanced tool, with Flange, Hem, Tab and Flat beside it.
How to use it#
- Draw the sheet in a sketch:
- closed shapes (a rectangle, a shape with holes) make a flat sheet, such as the base of a tray;
- joined lines (an L, a U, a Z) make a folded sheet, like a bracket seen from its end. Each corner becomes a bend. Leave the ends open: a closed outline is a flat sheet.
- Click Sheet metal and choose the Sketch.
- Set the Thickness, and the Bend radius (the radius on the inside of each bend: the thickness, unless you change it).
- For a folded sheet, set the Depth (how far it goes, along the sketch's normal) and which side of the lines the metal is on.
- Click ✓. Then add flanges, hems and tabs, cut holes with Extrude or Hole, and bend it along lines with Bend.
Options#
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Sketch | The sketch with the sheet's shape. Click a shape in the view to leave it out. |
| Thickness | How thick the sheet is. The part keeps it: every flange and bend uses it. |
| Bend radius | The radius on the inside of a bend. = thickness sets it back to the thickness. A flange or bend can have its own. |
| K-factor | Where the metal neither stretches nor squashes in a bend, as a share of the thickness from the inside. SchoolCAD uses 0.45, like Onshape. Leave it unless your teacher gives you a number. |
| Depth and Thickness on | Folded sheets only: how far the profile goes, and whether the lines are one face of the sheet, the other face, or its middle. |
| Flip | The sheet goes the other way from the sketch. |
| Bend relief | The slot cut beside a bend where the sheet carries on past it, so the bend can form: Rectangle, Obround (round ended) or Tear (just a cut). |
| Corner gap | The gap left where two flanges meet at a closed corner. |
Tips#
- Holes and cuts that go straight through the sheet show in the flat pattern and the laser cut file. Cut them before or after flanges.
- A change that does not go straight through the sheet (a pocket, a rounded top edge) cannot be folded flat. Sheet metal features after it say which feature to move.
- Moved, copied and mirrored sheet metal parts stay sheet metal.
- The parts list costs a sheet metal part from its flat pattern.
If it does not work#
- The lines for a folded sheet must join end to end in one chain: delete extra lines, or put them in another sketch.
- A line in the profile is too short for the bends at its ends: make the line longer, or the bend radius smaller.
- Where an arc meets a line in the profile, make them tangent: an arc in the profile is a bend, so it must run smoothly into its lines.