Making “skin” over ribs of light shade and printing in 2d

steve_lowe768

I have a design https://cad.onshape.com/documents/4cb721e03b8bff2544a45842/w/11123be59d2b5d675ef580b3/e/4776019c0a462b779d3c65f7

I want onshape to make a “skin” over the ribs and then flatten the skin so I can cut it out and apply. Ideas?

thanks in advance

steve
please Copy me on suggestions at buy@paragon-c.com

wayne_sauder

If you create a surface you can then thicken it.
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/d164277804ab4d506f465bd1/w/679ce2bc834b56b35ce14c0d/e/af306c2327ee742cb3767157

matthew_stacy

@steve_lowe768, to the best of my knowledge Onshape does not have any tools for "flattening" compound curved surfaces.  You'll need a third party app, like ExactFlat.

wayne_sauder

Sorry, I read your post too quickly and missed the point about wanting to flatten it. Matthew is correct to the best of my knowledge.  

EvanReese

What will your final material be made of? Unless it's very stretchy, you need to make sure your pattern is a developable surface. You could get this with Onshape's sheet metal tools. You might have to alter the curves of your design to suit some design constraints, especially having some areas straight so they can fold over from one segment to the other (assuming you want the "skin" to be all one piece). Here's an example. You could also manually add some tabs to overlap and glue together if you want. To add the tabs, I got the flat pattern into another part studio by first using an assembly, then using in-context editing (anybody know a cleaner way?).

steve_lowe768

cool, this may be just the ticket, although i am not sure exactly how you made it.  I was thinking of cutting it out of paper and then attaching the paper to the frame.  cool lampshade.