PTC/User Montreal

Creating a Sheet Metal Assembly

Topics Covered

• Skeleton in Sheet Metal Assembly

• Sheet Metal Parameters

• Convert Solid Model to Sheet Metal Model

• Copy Geometry

• Mirror a Part in Assembly

• Assembly

Skeleton in Assemblies

Skeleton: A special component of an assembly

• Created only within an assembly • Placed before all other components • Solid geometry in the model tree • Filtered out the BOM and drawing views• Specially handled for Simplified Reps and

Shrink-wrap features • Maintain their own family tables

Skeleton in Assemblies

Skeleton: The framework of the assembly

• Defines skeletal, space claim, interface, and other physical properties of an assembly

• Defines geometry of components • Perform motion analysis on an

assembly

Example:Monitor Shielding Shell

Using the skeleton

Dependent on Skeleton

by CopyGeom

VS

Completely Independent

from Skeleton

Copy Geometry

• Create a link between assembly components

• Create a link between external references

• Advantage:– If references are removed, can be made

independent (link is kept!)

• Beware of circular references!

Sheet Metal Parameters

• Special kind of model parameters

• Help centralize Sheet Metal Information

• Automate the Sheet Metal Design

• Set up before modeling

Example

Converting Solid Models to Sheet Metal Models

• Solid Models can be converted by:– Selecting a driving surface

• Solid model created with thin option

– Shelling the model

• When should you convert?– Corners

Example: Corner

Cut Rip

Mirroring a Part in Assembly

• Creates an exact mirror copy– Independent (Copy)– Dependant (Reference)

• Part with Reference– No reference to the assembly if datum or

plane belongs to original part

• Subassembly– Always a reference with Original Assembly

Summary

• Skeleton & Copy Geometry can play an important role in a Sheet Metal assembly

• Sheet metal Parameters help automate sheet metal models

• Sheet metal components can be created by converting solid geometry – Very useful for corners