Autodesk Inventor and Sheet Metal

Manufacturing: From Drawing to Fabrication

Andrew Warren Striker Systems, Striker Technology Solutions, Engineer Support Service

MA219-3 Learn how to draw sheet metal parts or assemblies in Autodesk Inventor that
manufacturing can fabricate. If youve been told something cant be made, or been given a model that is
impossible to make with their current manufacturing capabilities, join this class to learn how you CAN make it.
If you are a designer who works directly with a manufacturing facility, or a manufacturer having problems
producing what has been designed, then this class is for you. If you know how to make a part and know how
to draw in Inventor, this class will put the two together.

About the Speaker:

Andy is an applications engineer for Striker Systems in Nashville, Tennessee, with over 15 years of
experience with Autodesk products. He worked in the retail-store fixtures industry for several years before
joining the Striker Systems team, where he works extensively with CNC machine tools, specifically Lasers,
Plasmas, Waterjet, and Turret Punches. Andy was recently promoted to ATC manager for Striker Technology
Solutions, the only Autodesk ATC in Tennessee. His primary expertise is in 3D design flow to the
manufacturing floor. His certifications include Manufacturing Certified Implementation Expert, Inventor
Certified Expert, Machine Programming from Murata Machinery, and Lean Manufacturing.
andyw@striker-systems.com
 Autodesk Inventor and Shee
et Metal Man
nufacturing: From Drawing to Fabriccation

Conce
eptua
alIssu
uestoasky
yourse
elf
WhattistheM
MostIm
mportan
ntparto
ofSheettMetalD
Design??

KnowyyourPart!
What is it for? Where does it go?
What is it exposed to? ?
What kind d of loads?
How long should it lasst?
How impo ortant is costt?
Is it a one
e of a kind orr a productio
on run?
Are their Time
T issuess for the custtomer, is thiss a test,
should we e go the extrra mile to ma ake this a
marketing g drawing?

KnowyyourPeop
ple!
Who is deesigning it?
Who is making it?
Who is asssembling it? ?
Who is installing / settting it up?
How muc ch lead time do we / theyy have?
Is design separate froom engineerring separate e from manu
ufacturing?
Do the deesigners folloow a company standard, and is it yo
our companyys standard?
?
Does the design team m use FEA?
Do the deesigners / enngineers havve hands on experience with the me ethods used to
make parrt they are de esigning?
Do the deesigners and d MFG work for the same e company??
Are they in
i the same;; Building / City
C / State / Country?
Do they speak
s the saame languag ge?

Pa
age 2 of 2
 Autodesk Inventor and Sheet Metal Manufacturing: From Drawing to Fabrication

Corners/BendReliefsDoweusebendreliefs?
What happens when we just tear them?
What if it is somewhere in the middle?
DoesMFGadjustbends?
Did they figure out with 2D they had to add here, or subtract there, add tool over there?
- MFG may have to Re-Zero their thinking because of this.
- Does this information travel back to engineering or stay on the floor
BendTables?
What are bend tables
How does the K-Factor help me?
Can you rely on the k-factor without doing test bends
Dowemarkbends?
Are you marking bend locations for the Press Break?
QualityControl,Flatto3Dmodel
Are you following through to make sure the finished product is correct?
FlatReps
When should I make a change to the flat versus the 3D model?
Which environment should I use? Inventor vs. AutoCAD vs. CAM systems
WhichfinishamIusing?
Stainless, Powder coat, Paint, Bare steal, laminate, anodized, galvanized, chrome
plated?
How do I plan for this in my design?
DoesTempaffecttheparts?
You are adding heat when making these (laser, plasma, Punching) will this affect the
design?
Etching?
Are you etching with a laser or marking tool?
PostFinishing/Welding?
Do we need to oversize the blank to account for post finishing ?
Add so much weld need to reduce part size to allow room for it?
Assemblydesignvs.PartbyPartdesign
When you go from designing each part independent to designing them as a whole what
happens?
Do you still make them one by one, or nest the entire thing?

Page 3 of 3
 Autodesk Inventor and Shee
et Metal Man
nufacturing: From Drawing to Fabriccation

3Dmea
ansbetterrdesigns
3D allows forr; less scrap,, less reworkk, more acco
ountability - No longer ca
an mistakes be
blamed on the design.
Shippin
ngParts
Do we need to
D t make it sm
maller to be easier to ship, what abo
out packagin
ng, will it be bent
in
n shipping?

PhysiccalIsssues
PressB
Breaks/F
FormingT
Tools(RAS
Sfolders,R
Rollers,B
Benders)
What
W do we own,
o what caan we form, Does Size Matter?
M
A lot of manufactures
m s use the sa
ame dies for different ma
aterials beca
ause of the tiime it takes to
change them.

Press Brreaks tools generally

g desscribe the sizze of the diee opening
not the ra
adius it is go
oing to form. So if your MFG
M floor tellls you
they have e a L-1 with
wi a UP-1 on o top, this means
m it can bend a
1/32 rad
dius* in the part
p you are bending. Be ecause it had d a 1/32r
top puncch with a wide openin ng in the botttom die. Too oling is
actually less
l than 90 0 to allow forr spring backk and air ben nding,
reducingg tonnage req quired to ben nd the part.
*Depending on meta al thickness and
a type.

Bendta
ables/KFactor
D
Does our parrt use a funkyy bend calcuulation?
Soome Manufacctures make e bends that cannot be modeled.
m For
exa ample, somee bend a hem m with a RAAS folder, the
en run it bacck
ut the die and crush it to create a verry tight hem to
thrrough withou
maake an inter--locking part.

Before yo ou start crea

ating special bend tabless to make IN NV flats matcch what the floor
f uses. Make
M
sure the Operators on o the press break are not using an unfolder in the t controller of the brea ak, or
have pre e-programme ed fudge facctors added in because of o AutoCAD designs. So ome machine es
you type in the folderr part distances and then let the break figure the e flat, Inventtor can makeea
much mo ore accuratee flat; make them
t go bacck to the flat dims. Some e of the neww Breaks can n
automatically add ad dditional bend distances to account forf wrong fla ats (i.e. you tell
t them to bend
b
he machine takes the 2 bend and adds
it at 2, th a 1/32 au utomatically).

Pa
age 4 of 4
 Autodesk Inventor and Sheet Metal Manufacturing: From Drawing to Fabrication

WhatistheKFactororBendAllowances
When sheet metal is bent, the inside surface of
the bend is compressed and the outer surface of
the bend is stretched. Within the thickness of the
metal, lies its Neutral Axis, which is a line in the
metal that is neither compressed nor stretched.
If you have a piece with a 90 degree bend in
which one leg measures A, and the other
measures B, then the total length of the flat
piece is NOT A + B. To work out what the length
of the flat piece of metal needs to be, we need to
calculate the Bend Allowance or Bend
Deduction. This will tell us how much we need to
add or subtract to our leg lengths (A & B)
to get exactly what we want.

The location of the neutral line can be different depending on

the material itself, the radius of the bend, the ambient
temperature, direction of material grain, and the method by
which it is being bent, etc. The location of this line is what is
referred to as the Kfactor. K-factor is a ratio that represents
the location of the neutral sheet with respect to the thickness
of the sheet metal part.

To find if your manufacturing process works best with

Inventors Bend allowance is to reverse engineer a sheet
metal part. Measure strip of material, bending it, and
measuring it will give you the correct bend allowance. These
bend allowance can be measured for many materials and
scenarios and then be used in an Inventor bend table

ReverseEngineeringtheKFactor
First, cut a strip of material and measure its length and thickness as accurately as possible. The
width of the strip is not that critical but generally somewhere around 4 inches or so will work.
Then, bend the strip to 90 degrees, and measure its Length X and Length Y as shown in the
diagram below.

Page 5 of 5
 Autodesk Inventor and Shee
et Metal Man
nufacturing: From Drawing to Fabriccation

ect K-factor to use in Au

The corre utodesk Inveentor can now
w be calcula
ated as follow
ws:
BendDed duction = To
otal Flat Leng gth Y K-Facttor = (-BendRadius (BendDeductio
gth X Leng on /
( * Bend
dAngle / 1800))) / thickne
ess

The othe
er option Inve
entor has is a Bend Tab
ble option to control flat patterns.

The bendd table file is

s an ASCII fo
ormat .txt file
e. You can edit
e a bend ta able file with
h a text edito
or or
you can create
c one with
w a spread dsheet. A sa ample bend table file and
d a spreadsheet are
included in the \Autodesk\Invento or [version]\Design Data a\Bend Table es directory..

Tooling
gLimits(P
(Punch)
Can our punc
C ches rotate (Auto-Indexi
( ng Stations, A.I.), Do we e have keyed punches, what
about the station it is in?
Unless you own a ma achine with 90+ stationss all A.I., youu will more th han likely no
ot have more e
than a coouple AI stattions. If posssible only haave special to
ools in one direction.
d
Machine
M Tonnage; do we e have speciials that are made to do this?
If you are
e punching with
w a standa ard turret in an AI station
n, tonnage maym be less than you think.
On a 50 ton machine e the AI stations are typically rated at a 20 to 25 to ons because e of the AI
station, you
y will get an
a error if yo ou use to larg ge of a puncch in too thicck of materiaal in a AI stattion..

gLimits(B
Tooling (Break)
Can it go to th
C hat degree of o bend; do we
w have speecial
to
ools that can
n fit into the part?
p
Just beca b drawn or modeled do
ause it can be oes not mean
n it can
be madee in a signal part,
p with sta
andard shop
p tooling.

gLimits(P
Tooling (Profile)
How
H thick can n we burn, iss the hole sm
maller than kerf,
k should we pre-piercce the part?
Laser lim
mits usually do
d not affect the design asa much as tooling, unle ess you are making really
small holles or tight bends.
b Also keep
k d if you add any formed object to you part
in mind
(extrusions, single pu unches) youu need to rem move those items
i from the blank so they are nott
burned by
b the laser / Plasma.

Formin
ng/Specialtools
DoD we use: loouvers in botth directionss, Keys, extrusions, Custom made to ools?
Here is a good way to
t use the pu unch reposittion to make communica ation easier from
f design
intent to actual CNC//CAM and Manufacturin
M g. You can also
a make foorms that do o not unfold
correctly show up ass a special sh
hape for the CAM progra am to recognize it is a fo
orming tool.

Pa
age 6 of 6
 Autodesk Inventor and Sheet Metal Manufacturing: From Drawing to Fabrication

Buyingnewtools
Are we limited to what tools we already own, if we do buy a new one what is the turn
around on getting it?
If you are designing something that you will need a new special tool for, you should notify
manufacturing as soon as you can. You can get tools in as little as a few days for standard
shapes, but it can take weeks for special shapes, and longer for form tools.

Tonnage
If we own an older 50 Ton Machine can it really hit with all 50 Tons?
If you are working with tough or thick materials you need to know what the limits of your
machine are and if it is up to those limits. You can work with you machine dealer you use for
maintenance to have the tonnage tested. You may also want to design your parts with thinner
material to keep from over tonnage your machine and or tools.

MaterialAvailability
Do we use standard sheets, do we have to order, what if we run out, what other sizes
can we use?
If you are designing something on material that cost $1,000 sqft, then you need to make sure
manufacturing knows to handle parts with care. If one gets damaged it could be a week or more
to get replacements depending on where in the world it comes from.
You may design a flat 60 x 190, but they may come back and say we have the extra stock 60
x 120 sheet can we use them and redesign the parts to fit them. The cost and time savings
may be worth doing a little redesign.

Grainconsideration
What happens if part needs to have gain in the Y axis and it is over the table limits?
Stainless and titanium manufactures have to watch material grain direction. This must be taken
into account of the design. If you design a part with grain running east west, yet taller in the Y,
this can be a problem if the Y dim is taller than the y on machinery you own.

PartSize
Will it fit in our machines, will it fit out the door of the shop, and will it fit on a truck?
As above, will it fit on the table of a punch press or laser? Then you have to think can it fit out
the door of the shop, on a truck, or can your forklift pick it up. You may have to design it to be
broken down into smaller pieces.

Page 7 of 7
 Autodesk Inventor and Shee
et Metal Man
nufacturing: From Drawing to Fabriccation

Assemb
bly
Do we make and assemb
D ble it? Does it need to bee partially asssembled an nd then shipped
and finished onsite?
o
Do
D we buy pa arts already made?
Rememb ber final asseembly is not the end gamme of the de esign. It mayy have to be broken dow wn
into piece
es for shippiing. It would be good to break these e parts into actual
a sub-asssemblies in
n
w they are manufacturred.
Inventor, the same way
If you usee purchase or outsource ed parts be careful
c not to
o send purch hased parts to
Manufacturing. With much of the e CNC Fabriccation softwware they can n pull all She
eet metal pa
arts.
They will pull all parts
s, but allow you to omit parts that arre purchased d or made in n another MFFG
area.

Partco
omesfirstt!
Part
P at the en nd is all that really matte
ers!!!!
It doesntt matter how
w good or ho ow bad a mo odel is, what the idw or dwg
d looks likke, or how much
FEA and analysis yo ou do. The ph hysical part is all the cusstomer caress about.

Deesign/M
Modeling
gIssues
Weldm
ments
Should
S I use them or shoould I NOT?
A lot of manufacturer
m rs use welde
ements to make subasse emblies into
o single entitiies. If
manufacturing has to o do any trea
atments to prepare
p for th
his then you should use them in you ur
model. Iff you are welding two pie
eces of thin sheet
s metal together annd no need fo or grinding or
o
removal of material for
f the weld, then I would d not use theem. You can n still add theem for special
a marketing type mod
projects and dels, but dayy to day you have to askk do they add d value?
Also test your CAM oro CNC softw ware to makke sure they can separatte out the pa arts to make the
base blanks.

Templa
ates
Multiples,
M Horizontal, Verrtical, Long, Short.
One thingg that takes a lot of time
e to set up arre
ipropertie
es, and suppporting informmation to bee entered
into a moodel. You caan save some time by en ntering
everythin
ng that is genneric and theen having diifferent
groups of
o templates. Here I have e a .prt tempplate for
Horz, Veert, Short, and Tall parts.. Find the co
ommon
threads in your partss and then prre-populate your
templates.

Pa
age 8 of 8
 Autodesk Inventor and Shee
et Metal Man
nufacturing: From Drawing to Fabriccation

Standa
ards
K
K.I.S.S. and write them down, then make sure to
o keep it consistent

Standard ds do not hav ve to be elabborate bookks on how to

drawn a line in a ske etch. Start a little at a tim
me and just
puts somme notes in a word docum ment laying out what has
to be don ne and why. Add a coup ple of screan n shots and
picture iss worth a tho
ousand word ds.
Ex. showws the part and the inform mation for ed dge bandingg,
along witth descriptions of the abbreviations. Dont forgett
to add the actual loca ation in the iproperties
i w
where it
should be e added.
If you cha ange these do not forge et to tell everryone where,
how, and d when they changed, in ncluding conttractors and
MFG perrsonnel.

Revisio
ontrackin
ng
What
W kind of Data Manag gement do you y use?
rd
d
If you dont use Vault or other 3 party data managemen nt, do so noww. Designerss can get awway
without trracking revis
sions to an extent.
e It is easy
e to overw
write or dele
ete files you need. Also if you
copy a de esign from one
o part to another,
a IV iss stubborn enough to be e linked to the original
without you
y realizing it. Tracking design revissions and de esign status is helpful fo
or many reassons.
If you have a DM solution, it will automatically track and keep revisio ons up to date. This allowws
you to ro
oll back to a previous
p verrsion with thee flip of a sw
witch.

Custo
omiPropeerties
Do
o you need them are you u going overrboard, can you
pu
ull them from
m you MRP?
With a MRP / ERP P system, yo ou can link thhem to your
models via Producctstream and d automatica ally populate e
them. However if you
y do not use
u a MRP / ERP you ca an
use Custom ipropss for things like Work in Progress fie elds,
Assemmbly notes, finish
f notes, and CAM / CNC
mation. Most of your CAM
inform M programs can take a
customm iprop and use it to poppulate their fields
f is lookks for
the woord wood to send it to the router not the laser,
populaate the machhine name field, or whatt library to usse.

Pa
age 9 of 9
 Autodesk Inventor and Shee
et Metal Man
nufacturing: From Drawing to Fabriccation

The Custtom Properties shown are for materrial part numbers so the operators on
n the floor know
what stocck to pull to manufacture
e this part.

ipartsa
andiasse
emblies
Are
A there any y consideratiions with myy CAM softw ware and usin ng iparts?
Some CA AM software e can pull all the parts fro
om the assembly model. Verify theyy can pick up
p and
distinguissh the differe
ence in the same
s ipart in
n different co
onfigurationss.

Try this, make a sma all ipart with two configurrations, then
n add each version
v to a assembly.
a N
Next
add that assembly to o your manuffacturing sofftware. Did it get two parts? Are theyy actually
different or did it pull two copies of one of theem? Make sures the iproperties are correct
c for ea
ach
one, alonng with the part
p number and name.

Fe
eatures
SheetM
Metal
AllA Parts needd to be calle
ed Sheet Metal if they are SM parts evene Plate
A lot of manufactures
m s may outso ource or have e separate fab
f shops fro om the rest ofo
manufacturing. If youu send all Sh
heet Metal parts
p to a Fabb Shop via automated
a s
system or ma
anual
passing ofo parts, make sure you identify the Plate parts as SM too. Most
M peoplee dont consid
der a
1 thick part
p as SM, butb if you are e burning it on
o a laser orr plasma it iss the same thing.
t

HolesvvsExtrude
e
Iff you have a hole to add to a part
w
which do you use?
Always trry to use the e hole tool when
w drawingg
simple orr even comp plex holes, yes some
times wh hen importing g dwg sketches you can n
use extru ude. If you use the hole command it
will make e it easier to find later for editing.
NO Extru ude to add material!!!
m Yoou can use
Face, Fla ange, Couture Flange, but b no
straight extruded
e fea
atures; this will
w bite you
some day This can n also make the flat
unable to o unfold because adding g material in
a area it cannot come from.
Face worrks just like extrude
e but ensures thee
flat will work
w correctly
y when mad de.

Pag
ge 10 of 10
 Autodesk Inventor and Shee
et Metal Man
nufacturing: From Drawing to Fabriccation

afananafo
Banana foFeaturee
CanC you reme ember what feature doe es what?
If you use e a part draw
wing a lot ovver and overr again, can you rememb ber what flannge is what in six
months fromf now? Iff you have a lot of flange
es or holes or
o features in n general, tryy to give the
em
names. ThisT makes editing
e them
m down the ro oad much ea asier, or if so
omeone else e has to pull it up
it will let them
t know what
w is whatt.
Do D you know which dime ension is d4887?
What
W if d12 =d47?
=
Renamin ng dimension ns in the parrameters winndow is alsoo good for co onveying infoormation and d
makes lin nking them easier
e as we
ell because you
y can then n select them m from the list paramete ers
inside the e dimension command.

Bending
T
Tools are harrd to change e and expenssive to buy, bend feature es are easy to change
If you use sh heet metal sttyles correcttly you can make
m
c
changes on the fly to keeep changes on the floorr
a
away.
C
Check with the
t floor man nager to see e how often they
t
c
change Brea ak tooling. If they prefer to use the same
t
tools for multiple gaugess look at you ur design and
d ask

does it have e to have tha at big/ small of a corner
r
radius? our design iss a little flexible you can
If yo
s
save a lot off man hours using the sa ame tooling. Set
a the bendss in the range they use on
all o the floor to
t an
a
actual radiuss instead of a formula.
The Rad
dius on the left is set to thickness;
t th
he one on th he right is set to , will this really
change the design??

Partvss.Assemblly
DoD you punch h or burn flatt blanks with
h holes, thenn in assemblly drill additio
onal holes?
Try addin ng the holes during asse embly to the top level asssembly. The ey will not shhow up on thhe
flat blankk but will be in the model. Model it th he way it is going
g to be built
b in your production
p /
manufacturing proce ess.

Pag
ge 11 of 11
 Autodesk Inventor and Sheet Metal Man
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Flat
#1imp
portantSM
Missue!!!!!
Will Inventor make it into a flat? Is it complete,
W c do
oes the flat designed ma
atch the flat
going into the
e press break, if not whyy?

If you designed a part and Inventor will not

make a flat,
f chances s are it will be
e very
difficult to
o manufactu ure. If you ge et an error
like this you
y may wan nt to check the
t flat to
see whatt is wrong. In nventor will unfold
u it and
d
show you u the interferrence. If youu have to
have thiss flat, then yoou are going g to have to
make it a separate part and faste en it to the
original.

You want your flat in Inventor to match 110% %

of what iss produced physically
p on
n the floor. Iff
it does noot find out why
w You may
m be
correcting or allowing g for somethhing that is
not even used or und derstood on the floor.
Just beca w the way it has always
ause that was
been don ne: is not a good
g reason
n.

Doesth
hefloorad
ddbendrreliefs?
Are they doin
A ng something g they should not?
A you doing
Are g somethingg to look prettty that is not practical?
Iss something wrong with the finished part that driives this?

Definition
n: Bend relie
efs are added to preventt the metal frrom tearing g when it is folded.
f Tearr is
really the
e wrong verbbiage, in reality it wrinkle
es most of th
he time, or ca
ause anothe er part to bennd or
bow out. If part size and
a shape to olerances arre pushed beyond the lim mits manufa acturing has to
add the reliefs
r to con
ntrol this warrping of the material.
m

al part is OK
If the fina K and within tolerances,
t a manufaccturing is rem
and moving them m before the
blank is formed,
f remove your Invventor relief as well. If th
he floor is ad
dding it witho
out you telling
them, you may want to add the same s one to the Inventor model.
On scree en Bend relie ook larger than they are in real life, thus
efs tent to lo t designeers exaggera ate
the gaps. If you make e 14 gauge stainless ste eel cabinets and you mo odel a gap with
w .015 spa aces
and a tea ar corner, arre you sure? I have seen n SS welds beb as large as a 3/16 to 1/4
1 thick. Th he

Pag
ge 12 of 12
 Autodesk Inventor and Shee
et Metal Man
nufacturing: From Drawing to Fabriccation

same goes for bend reliefs, bigger and smaller. If you ha

ave a turret, try to use a common sizze
punch for reliefs to lim
mit tool chan
nges.

manypiece
Howm esdoesitn
needtobee?
DoD you need to break it in nto smaller pieces
p to be made then welded toge ether?
Too
T big for Tu urret, too lon
ng for break,, bends backk into itself?
In Inventor you can make
m a piecee of sheet metal
m 200 orr 2000 long if you want to.
t You may
want to scale
s that ba
ack to smalle er pieces tha
at are more manageable
m e. Even if you
u just design
n and
send it out to be madde, you can save moneyy if the shop does not ha ave to order special steeel for
the job, and
a it speeds s up turnaro ound time.
Next wou uld be does it need to be e knocked down
d in other words does it have to o be made
smaller foor shipping?
? Sometimess parts are to oo big for Trrucks, Trainss, or even Bo
oats, but eve
en
small thin
ngs may hav ve to be redu uced to savee on shipping charges.
Also can the parts fitt onto your laaser / punchh / break? So ome manufa actures have really large
laser bedds; some hav ve really smmall punch tables. Checkk on this to se ee how big is
i too big.

You say yes these are good things to think about a but whhy sheet mettal. You are more likely to t
use stand dard size sh heets in shee et metal thann regular parrts. Sheet metal
m Fab shoops dont like e to
buy big expensive
e machines
m to handle
h one or
o two jobs a year. It is cheaper
c to have it broken
down to the
t max size e of existing machines. Sheet
S metal is harder to o weld back together
t f yo
ou
have to break
b it into smaller
s piecces. Unlike thhick plate orr billet type parts
p that havve a lot of bulk
mass com mpared to th heir relative size. With thhin gauge metal you nee o tabs of some
ed overlap, or
sort to acccommodate e welds, riveets or bolts to
o reassemble. This can cause weakk points and
unsightlyy seams in parts. If you find
f this out in the beginn ning you can n add tabs, or
o make the
brakes at corners tha at can hid the bolts or rivvets.

FlatReeps
Punch
P and fo
ormed featurres going to the Flat
With Inveentor 2008 you
y can speccify what pun nches look like in the fla ation. In the past
at representa
any kind of punch or something that
t stretche
es metal did not make a pretty flat. This
T makes it
hard for CNC
C CAM software
s to automatically
a y pick it up and
a add tooling correctlyy. You create e it
as a stan
ndard ipart and
a then crea ate a seconddary sketch to be the rep position.

To create
e a Punch to ool with alterrnate flat:
1. Create
C the puunch using standard
s parrt
m
modeling feattures such as
a cut in the case of
th
his vent cluster punch.
N
Note: Dont fo
orget the cen nter mark in the
in
nitial sketch.

Pag
ge 13 of 13
 Autodesk Inventor and Shee
et Metal Man
nufacturing: From Drawing to Fabriccation

2. C
Create an alte ernate flat re
ep with a sim mple
skketch.
3. Use
U the Tools s>Extract ifeeature to ma ake the
shheet metal punch
p out off the feature you
crreated.
4. Select
S the Simmplified Rep presentation arrow
and pick yourr simplified sketch
s for thee
alternate rep..
5. Save
S your ife
eature
6. When
W you inssert the ifeatture it will loo
ok
normal, when n you activatte the flat it will
w
appear as the e sketch.
This givees you some ething easierr for CNC so oftware
to find an
nd reduces the
t size of yo our model whenw you
have multiples of the ese types of punches.

Formo
oreinform
mation:

Rememb ber most of the

t answers you alreadyy know or ha ave someone e working wiith you that
does. Assk you opera
ators, welderrs, and mate esign works for them. Th
erial handlerss how the de hey
understa
and the simple things like
e how to make it go togeether better, and what is going to save
them time.

You can also contactt your machine tool dealer or manuffacture. Theyy keep A/Ess on staff to help
make designs that he elp their macchines run smoother.
s Th
hey are more e than happyy to help ansswer
design questions and d get you proocedures for your opera
ators to take advantage of
o your 3D
design ovver the old 2D
2 designs. Not to menttion if you ha
ave a supporrt contract with
w a CAM
software company ca all and ask that is what you
y are payiing for

E-mail me
m for any furrther questio
ons andyw@ @striker-systeems.com
I am alwa
ays more tha an happy to help someo one in need out
o Trust me I have needed and will
w
need help again withh the same isssue you are
e having. I believe in pee
er support, so
s dont forget
about AU pport groups out their happy to be off service.
UGI and all the peer sup

ussion forum
For discu ms to get help
p from otherr going throu
ugh the same
e thing you are:
www.AU
UGI.com
www.mffgcommunnity.autode
esk.com
www.sd
dotson.com
m

Pag
ge 14 of 14