sheet metal always 3 layer with convert

bård_olsen

Hello.

I have tried to use the sheet metal tool, to modify even the simplest of sketches, and i need to use the convert feature to get the sketches correctly into the sheet metal.

Problem is, even a simple square sketch with nothing on it ends up with 3 layers in sheet metal, and i am unable to do anything.

All i did was press the sheet metal button, select PART 1 as convert from the extrude 1...since i cannot select the surface from the sketch 1.

This seems to prevent me from bending or doing anything in the sheet metal tool...

Hope someone can tell me how to fix this.

Thanks

eric_pesty

I would recommend doing the training on sheet metal...

"convert" creates sheet metal from all the faces of the part you select. If you read what it says in the different input boxes, you would be able to tell you can exclude specific faces and pick which edges to bend. Try skipping the extrude and using the "thicken" sheet metal option instead...

eric_pesty

I would recommend doing the training on sheet metal...

"convert" creates sheet metal from all the faces of the part you select. If you read what it says in the different input boxes, you would be able to tell you can exclude specific faces and pick which edges to bend. Try skipping the extrude and using the "thicken" sheet metal option instead...

bård_olsen

thank you eric. I kind of figured it was something like that...but it is not logical it extrude the stuff to 3 layers as you would never be able to work with it in 3 layers. It should tbh work like the thicken feature which is what people want when making sheet metal

bård_olsen

ps i did several trainings, not a single one mentioned anything about the 3 layers coming up. on the contrary all example videos showed sheet metal becoming 1 layer when making the simplest of things from convert..which is why i was so confused.

eric_pesty

It's not three "layers". It's the two opposite sides of the extrude (and the extrude itself).
When you pick a rectangular extrude to convert it creates 6 sheet metal parts, on eon each sides and you can exclude some faces and pick which edges to make into bends to connect the different parts.

S1mon

It would be helpful to go through the tutorials/training for sheet metal.

https://learn.onshape.com/learn/course/simultaneous-sheet-metal/getting-started-with-simultaneous-sheet-metal/what-is-simultaneous-sheet-metal

Or

https://www.onshape.com/en/resource-center/videos/designing-in-sheet-metal

naithan_loach

This wasn't helpful at all. I also took the training and came to the same conclusion as Bard. What I ended up doing is following a solution from Billy2 in another forum. It worked well.

billy2 said:

If you have a body, offset 0 all faces and then delete the original body. Then you should be able to enclose all of the offset faces back into a solid.

If you can't, the original solid was on the cusp of failure and you're lucky.

If you're using feature script, it should match up with the user interface and enclose. You can always look at the enclose command and see how onshape did it.

bryan_lagrange

Instead of convert use the thicken command and select the face of the part. This will convert one face to sheet metal and not all sides like convert will. One thing to keep in mind unlike the convert section where you have an option to keep the original or delete it, you will have to use Delete Part command to delete the original if you don't choose to keep it .

bård_olsen

i did several trainings, not a single one mentioned anything about the 3 layers coming up. on the contrary all example videos showed sheet metal becoming 1 layer when making the simplest of things from sketches.

At one point i tried to extrude a fan opening, where there where small openings in between grids, and when onshape failed to extrude that properly and easily i just had to look for a more intuitive and professional software. I found Fusion360 which is in a whole different league when it comes to sheet metal handling. All i had to do was set a sheet metal thickness rule, say 1.2mm, then make a sketch, a flange, and I could do whatever i wanted to the sheet metal flange i made. No problems with extrusions or bends or whatever. Onshape is just not up to sheet metal tasks intuitively.

Thanks for trying though.

best reg.

Bård