Fold Sheet Metal Inventor

On the ribbon click sheet metal tab create panel fold.

Fold sheet metal inventor.

Use the fold angle to set the bend angle and the bend radius to override the radius set by the sheet metal styles if required. Let s start with the rules of sheet metal. Autodesk inventor webinar series. I am being told by our shop here that when part is shown in the flat view the fab guy needs to see different style lines for folds the go up or down.

Click the bend line to use for the fold. Specify the location of the fold line. Unlike the bend flange contour flange or hem features which all add material to the design the fold feature does not add material. If the fold goes down the fold line is show dashed and if the fold is going up its shown as sol.

Have a question for any sheetmetal workers. The bend line must be placed on the face you are folding and must terminate at face edges. Rule 1 you must have a consistent thickness. Unfortunately sheet metal bending is not always going to be the same in every shop.

Autodesk inventor webinar series. Click the bend line to use for the fold. In fold location click one of the following to specify. Autodesk inventor allows for converting models to sheet metal.

The advantage to using folds over flanges is no material is added by adding. Most frequently expensive sheet metal bending tools called brakes are used to bend sheet metal but you can also complete this task without one. Many software packages like solid works inventor and solid edge will let you incorporate a bend allowance chart into its calculations when developing flat patterns. A fold on a sheet metal face forms about a straight sketched bend line that terminates at face edges.

Bending sheet metal by hand is a manageable task if the piece of sheet metal is small and thin enough to handle. Creating a chart with your standard values is a key component of speeding up this process. Which means regardless where the model geometry originates you can convert it to sheet metal add sheet metal features and generate the flat pattern. Use the fold command to fold a sheet metal face about a sketched line.