• Unfold any part that has cylindrical or conical bends
• Handle punches in bend areas
• Fold up a corner of a sheet
• Manually create a sheet metal part from a 2D drawing
By unfolding one bend of a sheet metal part at a time, you can produce a flat area or flat blank for further machining operations. You can also unfold all bends on a part in one operation. The unfold functionality enables you to perform machining operations that are required prior to bending in a real shop.
The following figure illustrates this procedure.
You cannot fold or unfold offsets.
You can unfold one, some or all of the bends of a sheet metal part to produce a flat blank, or to perform machining operations in or near the (unfolded) bend areas.
To unfold a single bend of a sheet metal part,
1. Click Sheet Metal and then, in the Modify Sheet group, click Fold/Unfold. The Fold/Unfold dialog box opens.
2. Click the Bend you want to unfold.
3. Click the Base Face for this bend. The base face is the face that will retain its position when the bend is unfolded. You can specify a top face or a bottom face as the defining base face.
4. Optionally, click Preview for a first visual impression of the partial flat.
5. Click to complete the unfold operation, or click Next to unfold the selected bend and to select another bend to be unfolded. Each click of Next causes one undo step.
The length of any partial flat produced in this way is governed by the allowance defined in your shop.
To unfold all the bends on sheet metal parts in a single operation,
1. Click Sheet Metal and then, in the Modify Sheet group, click Unfold Parts. The Unfold Parts dialog box opens.
2. Click a base face on each part to unfold. A base face is the face that will retain its position when the bends are unfolded. You can now see visual feedback on the unfolding operation in the viewport.
3. Click the Show Step check box to see the bends unfold one by one. When the Show Step check box is cleared, you see only the unfolded result without the intermediate steps.
4. Click to complete the unfold operation.
Creo Elements/Direct Sheet Metal remembers the properties of each bend so that bends unfolded in this way can be recreated whenever required.
Optionally, you can now apply standard Creo Elements/Direct Modeling machining operations plus Creo Elements/Direct Sheet Metal punch operations to the flat. Note that Creo Elements/Direct Sheet Metal punch operations in the vicinity of the unfolded bend will invoke DMF related messages.
Fold/Unfold button enables you to:
to complete the unfold operation, or click Next to unfold the selected bend and to select another bend to be unfolded. Each click of Next causes one undo step.
Unfold Parts. The Unfold Parts dialog box opens.