About the Sheetmetal Design User Interface

Sheetmetal > Using Sheetmetal Design > About the Sheetmetal Design User Interface

The Sheetmetal Design user interface consists of tabs with groups of commands and additional buttons on the Graphics toolbar.

Some buttons change to display the most recently used and active command. Click the arrow for available commands.

Walls Group

Use the Walls group to create and modify sheet metal walls.

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Flat—Opens the Flat tab to create an attached flat wall.

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Flange—Opens the Flange tab to create an attached flange wall.

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Extrude—Opens the Extrude tab to create an unattached extruded wall.

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Planar—Opens the Planar tab to create an unattached planar wall.

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Boundary Blend—Opens the Boundary Blend tab to create a sheet metal wall or surface with boundary blended geometry.

• Walls—Displays the following additional commands:

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Revolve—Opens the Revolve tab to create a sheet metal wall with revolve geometry.

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Twist—Opens the Twist tab to create a twisted wall.

◦ Sweep—Click the arrow to display sweep commands.

Sweep—Opens the Sweep tab to create a sheet metal wall with constant or variable section sweep geometry.

Helical Sweep—Opens the Helical Sweep tab to create a sheet metal wall with helical sweep geometry.

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Swept Blend—Opens the Swept Blend tab to create a sheet metal wall with swept blend geometry.

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Blend—Opens the Blend tab to create sheet metal walls with blended sections that lie on parallel planes.

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Rotational Blend—Opens the Rotational Blend tab to create sheet metal walls with blended sections that lie on rotated planes.

Engineering Group

Use the Engineering group to add sheetmetal-specific features.

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Extruded Cut—Opens the Extruded Cut tab to add a solid sheet metal cut.

• Form—Click the arrow to display additional commands.

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Punch Form—Opens the Punch Form tab to create a punch on a sheet metal wall using a predefined punch reference model.

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Die Form—Opens the Die Form tab to mold the sheet metal wall using a die form reference model.

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Sketched Form—Opens the Sketched Form tab to use a sketch as a reference for a punch.

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Quilt Form—Opens the Quilt Form tab to create a punch on a sheet metal wall using a quilt, or a solid body, as a reference for a punch.

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Flatten Form—Opens the Flatten Form tab to flatten punch and die forms, returning the features to their original flat states.

• Rip—Creates a rip. Click the arrow to display rip commands.

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Edge Rip—Opens the Edge Rip tab to create edge rips.

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Surface Rip—Opens the Surface Rip tab to create surface rips.

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Sketched Rip—Opens the Sketched Rip tab to create sketched rips.

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Rip Connect—Opens the Rip Connect tab to create a rip by defining the rip endpoints.

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Conversion—Opens the Conversion tab to add features necessary to make a sheet metal part developable and manufacturable.

• Engineering—Displays the following sheetmetal-specific commands:

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Corner Relief—Opens the Corner Relief tab to add relief to one or more corners of a sheet metal part.

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Punch—Opens the Open dialog box to select a punch template to cut and add relief to a sheet metal wall.

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Notch—Opens the Open dialog box to select a notch template to cut and add relief to a sheet metal wall.

Bends Group

Use the Bends group to create and modify bends.

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Unbend—Unbends a sheet metal part. Click Unbend to display additional commands.

◦ Unbend—Opens the Unbend tab to unbend the sheet metal part.

◦ Transitional Unbend—Opens the (Transition Type) dialog box.

◦ Cross Section Driven Unbend—Opens the (Xsec Driven Type) dialog box.

• Bend—Includes commands for adding bends to a sheet metal part.

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Bend—Opens the Bend tab to add an angled or rolled bend to a sheet metal part.

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Edge Bend—Opens the Edge Bend tab to round sharp edges on a sheet metal part.

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Planar Bend—Opens the OPTIONS dialog box to add an angled or rolled planar bend to a sheet metal part.

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Bend Back—Opens the Bend Back tab to return unbent sheet metal walls to their formed positions.

• Flat Pattern—Click the arrow to display additional commands.

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Flat Pattern Manager—Creates a Flat Pattern Manager feature containing flat pattern features for each body with geometry in the part.

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Flat Pattern—Opens the Flat Pattern tab to automatically flatten one sheet metal body that has the fixed geometry. Only one Flat Pattern feature is allowed in a sheet metal part.

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Create Representation—Opens the Flat Pattern Representation dialog box to create simplified representations of the flat and initial states of the selected body.

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Create Instance—Opens the Flat Pattern Instance dialog box to create Family Table instances of the flat and initial states of the selected body.

You can use the smt_flat_rep_inst_option configuration option to control the display of the

Create Representation and

Create Instance commands.

• Bends—Displays the following additional command:

◦ Bend Order—Opens the Bend Order dialog box to show the ordering of bend features in a sheet metal design by creating bend order sequences.

Editing Group

Use the Editing group to modify sheet metal walls.

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Offset—Opens the Offset tab to offset a quilt, a solid body, or a surface of a wall to create a new surface or a sheet metal wall.

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Extend—Opens the Extend tab to lengthen an existing flat wall with a straight edge.

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Join—Opens the Join tab to connect two intersecting walls.

• Editing—Displays the following sheetmetal-specific commands:

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Split Area—Opens the Split Area tab to define a surface patch or an edge to split from a sheet metal part.

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Merge—Click Merge Walls to open the Merge Walls dialog box. Merge one or more unattached flat walls with a base wall to form one part.

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Unstamp Edge—Opens the UNSTAMP EDGE and the FLATTEN EDGE dialog boxes to remove stamped features, such as rounds and chamfers, when preparing a design for manufacture.

Graphics Toolbar Buttons Specific to Sheetmetal

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—Sets the display options: