Intersecting Flanges Tutorial

This tutorial is designed to walk you through the steps in creating a part made of intersecting flanges using the sheet metal module.

Sheet Metal/Plate Design

• This tutorial will begin by showing how to create a specified piece of bent sheet metal designed with "PickPoints".

• If you're not familiar with this interface, it is suggested that you visit the Sheet Metal Module page for better understanding of the basics.

Things To Know

• This tutorial is designed to walk the user through creating a sheet metal/plate design. As you go through this tutorial, later procedures will assume that you understand all earlier procedures. Because of this, it is very important that you carefully step through this guide, understanding everything along the way and following all steps in order.

• A few key items need to be addressed before starting the step-by-step instructions of this tutorial. It is very important for Bend-Tech users to completely understand these items:

1) PickPoints

PICKPOINTS ARE USED FOR EVERYTHING. The Sheet Metal part of the software is largely run in full 3D. Because a computer screen is only 2D, there is an unlimited amount of depth behind and in front of the cursor. A PickPoint is a point in 3D space that can be used for creating, editing, and placing parts in handrail design. PickPoints can be placed in a 2D environment by having their depth manually entered in the appropriate value fields.

• There are 2 types of PickPoints; Those automatically created by the part by default (various colors) and user-defined points (green). In addition, the initial (0,0,0) point is an automatic point that resides at the center of the Tri-Star. The Tri-Star is our directional definition locator.

2) Center Line & Apex

• Center Line: In the Sheet Metal design environment we are working primarily with the "center-line" of a part, as compared to the inside or outside.

• Apex: Most bend locations are created in Sheet Metal design with the "Apex". Our definition of apex is the intersection of the straight tubes as if there wasn’t a radius.

This is demonstrated in the picture below.

3) Locational Orientation

• Designing seems to work the best if users imagine as if they are standing at a 45 degree angle to the desired creation. This way left is left and right is right. Take a minute and examine the Tri-Star (under the PickPoints] tab) to get your orientation.

Start Up

1) Start by double clicking the "Bend-Tech 7x" icon to start up the program.

2) Select the "Plate" icon in the Task Menu under the "Create New" section to open the Sheet Metal/Plate interface, Or... select the Plate button on the main toolbar, OR... select "File → New → Plate". The window that opens should be labeled [Plate - 1].

3) For the purposes of this tutorial, click the "Maximize" button at the top right of the plate design window.

4) Also, for the purposes of this tutorial, zoom out significantly by spinning the wheel on your mouse so that the X - Y base point is about the size of a pea in the lower left corner of the display area.

Free Select

• Free Select can be used to allow the user to click anywhere on the screen as if there was a point. Whenever Free Select is on, the display window is dimmed slightly. It is very difficult to place points with precision using Free Select mode, so make sure you take it off whenever you are trying to do something where precision matters.

CAD vs Sheet Metal

• The Part Interface is basically divided into 2 areas, a simple CAD interface and sheet metal functions. The CAD functions allow you to create a part using points, lines, arcs, and other features for the part, much like other CAD software. These functions include trimming/extending lines, using tangent and intersection points, and placing dimensions. The sheet metal portion of the software allows you to convert features into a flange and add flanges together with bends.

Bending Radius

• When creating a bent part and setting up a material in the Plate Material Library, it is important to understand that the bending radius is the INSIDE radius of the bend. While some areas of the software may use the centerline dimensions, the bending radius of each bend on a sheet metal part is referring to the Inside Radius.

• The following image shows the part we will be building in this tutorial.

Creating the Base Flange

1. The first step to most any part is to create some points defining the part’s base flange. All features of a part can be created under the "Create" tab (except for bends).

2. Select the "Create" tab.

3. The "Point" sub-tab will be displayed, showing the different methods you can use to create a point.

4. Notice that the part already has a point created at the (0, 0) coordinate. This point is the first point in our part. As seen below, our first part is 24 inches wide, so start by creating the base flange that wide.

5. Select the "Incremental" point option.

6. Type 24 into the X: value field and place the first part 24 inches to the right of the base point.

7. Then, type "0" back into the X: value field and type "10" into the Y: value field to place points above the two existing ones.

8. Next, select the "Line" sub-tab, check the "Continuous" check box, and select each of the points in a clockwise motion to create a rectangle. Then, click "Cancel" at the top of the screen.

Our base flange is created, but not defined.

Defining and Adding New Flanges

Defining the Part

1. Go to the "Part" tab and select a ".125" (eighth inch thick) material and select the "Define Flange" button. (Note) If users do not have a ".125" material saved to their material library, they can create one by selecting the "Library" button and following the steps in the Plate/Sheet Library.

2. After selecting the .125 material and the "Define Flange" button, select the part in the display area and the part will become defined.

Adding New Flanges

1. Select the "Bends" sub-tab and start by adjusting the "Bend Angle:" from it's default (90) to "30" so that the bends are less pronounced.

(Note) If the user has just created their new material as seen in earlier steps, they will also need to select their "Inside Bend Radius" under this sub-tab. Specifics are shown here.

2. Select the "New" button and create a flange on the left side of the base, one directly below that, and one directly below the original base flange as seen below.

3. Save each flange with the default names as they appear.

• In the 3D Shaded view of the part, it appears to be finished, but it's not. There is excess metal that appears at the lower point of intersection between child flange 3 and 4. An indication that the part isn't complete is shown by the yellow/orange "Flanges List" button located above the display area.

• To fix this excess, the user will need to use the "Flange Intersection" button and then "Trim" the excess sheet metal.

• There is more than one way to do this.

Intersecting the Flanges

1. Go to the "Tools" tab and select the "Flange Intersection" button under the "Misc" section.

2. Then, in the Design view, select the right edge of Flange 3 and then the left edge of Flange 4 as seen below.

3. This intersection requires some trimming, so go to the "Edit" tab and the "Trim" sub-tab.

Trimming/ Deleting/ Adding to the Part

• This process of trimming, deleting and adding sections is tedious and requires precise movements. There is no auto-trim so the user is allowed to trim the excess as they see fit.

1. Select the "Flange List" button, the "Flange 3" option and then zoom in on the highlighted flange.

2. The flange should be highlighted black by this step and should contain horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines. With the "Trim Single" option selected in the "Trim" tab, click the A side, then the B side to trim the first excess line away.

3. Then, click the "C" side and the "B" side in that order to trim another excess line.

4. Unfortunately, the vertical line cannot be removed by using the "Trim" function, so open the "Edit" tab and use the "Delete" function found there.

5. Once all the excess is trimmed, define Flange 3 once again.

(Note) If the wrong lines get deleted, or some of the lines that don't belong remain in the part, there are four main functions any user will need to make the flange whole again: "Undo Button, Edit-->Delete Buttons, Edit-->Trim Buttons and the Create-->Line buttons" Without these buttons, users could not intersect bent sheet metal parts and trim away the excess.

6. Switch over to Flange 4 by clicking on it in the Flange List.

7. Follow the previous steps to remove the excess on this opposing side of the intersection as well.

• • Select the "Edit" tab and the "Delete" sub-tab to highlight a line that needs to be deleted. Once highlighted, select the "Complete" button at the top of the page in order to remove the line permanently.

• • Select the "Create" tab and the "Line" sub-tab to place a new line to fill in any gaps in the outline of the flange. Users must make sure that the flange they are working on has no gaps in the outline before they are able to define the flange and continue with the project.