SolidWorks -Creating Frame Drawings & Tube Flat Patterns

[Chris M.]

Take a look at this video. We've found that a number of teams were having problems getting a perfect fit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BE9aeeTusM

[Chris M.]

Take a look at this video. We've found that a number of teams were having problems getting a perfect fit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BE9aeeTusM

[coastertrav]

Wow, great info.

Thanks, and this will be quite helpful in getting that perfect fit.

[SamB]

Do you select the inside or outside edge of the tube? They both give different results and we had some problems last year - we had to 'engineer' some laser cut tubes to make them fit and think it may have been because we selected the wrong edge.

[Dan B]

That way won't work unless you have a 90° joint or 0 wall thickness tubing. Try putting the (now) sheet metal part back into the assembly and doing an interference check. You will note that it does matter if you use the inside edge or the outside edge and neither of them will assure no interference.

I have worked around the problem by doing 2 ruled surfaces on each tube end (on OD going in & ID going out type:Normal to Surface and double the wall thickness) and doing 2 cuts (ignoring sheet-metal all together). Sometimes you have to use Cut with Surface and sometimes Thicken Cut (obtuse error messages abound) and select the proper body to keep.

If there is a quicker proper way to do it I would like to hear.

[Dan B]

Here is how to do the "normal cut" on the end of a tube like what a laser will do.

http://mysite.verizon.net/tria...tchUsingSurfaces.zip