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SolidWorks 2006

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Sheet Metal and Weldments

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SolidWorks Corporation
300 Baker Avenue
Concord, Massachusetts 01742 USA
 1995-2005, SolidWorks Corporation
300 Baker Avenue
Concord, Massachusetts 01742 USA
All Rights Reserved
U.S. Patents 5,815,154; 6,219,049; 6,219,055;
6,603,486; 6,611,725; and 6,844,877 and certain
other foreign patents, including EP 1,116,190 and JP
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3,517,643. U.S. and foreign patents pending.
SolidWorks Corporation is a Dassault Systemes
ut
S.A. (Nasdaq:DASTY) company.
The information and the software discussed in this
document are subject to change without notice and
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should not be considered commitments by
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SolidWorks Corporation.
No material may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for
any purpose without the express written permission
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of SolidWorks Corporation.
The software discussed in this document is furnished
under a license and may be used or copied only in
accordance with the terms of this license. All
warranties given by SolidWorks Corporation as to
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the software and documentation are set forth in the
SolidWorks Corporation License and Subscription
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Service Agreement, and nothing stated in, or implied
by, this document or its contents shall be considered
or deemed a modification or amendment of such
warranties.
SolidWorks, PDMWorks, and 3D PartStream.NET,
and the eDrawings logo are registered trademarks of
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SolidWorks Corporation.
SolidWorks 2006 is a product name of SolidWorks
Corporation.
COSMOSXpress, DWGeditor, DWGgateway,
eDrawings, Feature Palette, PhotoWorks, and
XchangeWorks are trademarks, 3D ContentCentral
is a service mark, and FeatureManager is a jointly
owned registered trademark of SolidWorks
Corporation.
COSMOS, COSMOSWorks, COSMOSMotion, and
COSMOSFloWorks are trademarks of Structural
Research and Analysis Corporation.
FeatureWorks is a registered trademark of
Geometric Software Solutions Co. Limited.
Do
ACIS is a registered trademark of Spatial
Corporation.
GLOBEtrotter and FLEXlm are registered
trademarks of Globetrotter Software, Inc.
Other brand or product names are trademarks or
registered trademarks of their respective holders.
Document Number: PMT0074-ENG
COMMERCIAL COMPUTER
SOFTWARE - PROPRIETARY
U.S. Government Restricted Rights. Use,
duplication, or disclosure by the government is
subject to restrictions as set forth in FAR 52.227-19
(Commercial Computer Software - Restricted
Rights), DFARS 227.7202 (Commercial Computer
Software and Commercial Computer Software
Documentation), and in the license agreement, as
applicable.
Contractor/Manufacturer:
SolidWorks Corporation, 300 Baker Avenue,
Concord, Massachusetts 01742 USA
Portions of this software 1988, 2000 Aladdin
Enterprises.
Portions of this software 1996, 2001 Artifex
Software, Inc.
Portions of this software 2001 artofcode LLC.
Portions of this software 2005 Bluebeam
Software, Inc.
Portions of this software 1999, 2002-2005
ComponentOne
Portions of this software 1990-2005 D-Cubed
Limited.
Portions of this product are distributed under license
from DC Micro Development, Copyright 1994-
2002 DC Micro Development, Inc. All rights
reserved
Portions eHelp Corporation. All rights reserved.
Portions of this software 1998-2005 Geometric
Software Solutions Co. Limited.
Portions of this software 1986-2005 mental
images GmbH & Co. KG
Portions of this software 1996 Microsoft
Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Portions of this software 2005 Priware Limited
Portions of this software 2001, SIMULOG.
Portions of this software 1995-2005 Spatial
Corporation.
Portions of this software 2003-2005, Structural
Research & Analysis Corp.
Portions of this software 1997-2005 Tech Soft
America.
Portions of this software are copyrighted by and are
the property of UGS Corp. 2005.
Portions of this software 1999-2005 Viewpoint
Corporation.
Portions of this software 1994-2005, Visual
Kinematics, Inc.
This software is based in part on the work of the
Independent JPEG group.
All Rights Reserved
SolidWorks 2006 Training Manual

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Table of Contents

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Introduction
About This Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Course Design Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
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Using this Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

About the CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Windows 2000 and Windows XP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Conventions Used in this Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Lesson 1:
Modeling Sheet Metal Parts
Sheet Metal Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Stages in the Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Sheet Metal Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Designing with Sheet Metal Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
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Sheet Metal Gauges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Flanges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Base Flange. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Sheet Metal Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Sheet-Metal Feature
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Flat-Pattern Feature
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Miter Flange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Edge Flanges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Adding a Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Flat Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Flat Pattern Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

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Cuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Cuts in the Folded Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Unfold and Fold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Sheet Metal Forming Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Standard Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Using a Standard Forming Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
How They Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Creating a Custom Forming Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

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Conversion of a Forming Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

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Bend Angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Sheet Metal Parts in Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

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Sheet Metal Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

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Edge Flanges and Closed Corners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Individual Edges with an Edge Flange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Closing a Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

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y o lea Designing in Flat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Existing Rounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Base Flange. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
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Using Symmetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
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Manual Relief Cut. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Break Corner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Jog Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Fix Projected Length. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
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Lofted Bends. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Bend Deviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Exercise 1:
Sheet Metal Bends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Exercise 2:
Sheet Metal Relief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Exercise 3:
Sheet Metal from Flat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Exercise 4:
Sheet Metal Flanges and Bends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Exercise 5:
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Assorted Framing Hangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Lesson 2:
Converting Parts to Sheet Metal
Sheet Metal Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Stages in the Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Converting Legacy Sheet Metal Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Recommended Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Recognize Bends Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Importing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Opening IGES Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Document Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Report Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

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Using the Rip Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Adding Bends in Place of Sharp Corners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Sheet Metal Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
New Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Switching Between States. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Making Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Sheet Metal from Shelled Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Unrolling Cones and Cylinders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

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Process Plans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

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Bends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

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Exercise 6:

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Importing and Converting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Exercise 7:
Process Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

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Lesson 3:
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Modeling Sheet Metal In the Context of an Assembly
Sheet Metal Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
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Top-Down Assembly Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
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Stages in the Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

In-Context Sheet Metal Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Adding a New Part into an Assembly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Results of Insert, Component, New Part. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
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Appearance During Part Editing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Color of the Part Being Edited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Building Edge Flanges In Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Building Miter Flanges In Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Additional Cut Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Hems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Edit Assembly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Exercise 8:
Sheet Metal in an Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Exercise 9:
Jogs and Hems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
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Exercise 10:
U-Bolt In-Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Exercise 11:
Tube Brace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Lesson 4:
Weldments
Weldments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Weldments Toolbar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Weldment Feature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Structural Members. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Corner Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Sketch Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

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Trimming Structural Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Adding Plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Weld Beads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Using Symmetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Gussets and End Caps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Gusset Profile and Thickness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Locating the Gusset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
End Cap Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

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Profile Sketches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

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Custom Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Working with Weldments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

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Sub-weldments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

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Non-structural Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Saving Bodies as Separate Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Post-assembly Machining Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

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Managing the Cut List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Weld Beads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Balloons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
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Automatically Generating the Cut List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
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Custom Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

List of Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Cut List Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Weldment Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
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Drawing Views of Individual Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Cut List Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Working with Pipes and Tubing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
3D Sketching. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Using Standard Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Using 3D Sketch Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Creating a 3D Sketch Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Visibility controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Merge Arc Segment Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Weldments and Sheet Metal in Assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Sheet Metal or Structural Member? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
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Reusing In-context Parts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Exercise 12:
Creating a Weldment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Exercise 13:
Bent Tubing, Sheet Metal, and Assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

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