working with cones

doug_hills

Hi,
I'm working on an adaptor to connect my Planer to my vacuum.
I plan to 3D print a ring for each end. Then use a soft plastic cutting board to wrap a cone between them.

I can draft a cone, but I want to flatten it, so I can print it full size, and trace the shape onto the plastic to cut it out.

Can I flatten the cone as is? or do I have to create it as sheet metal? I tried the sheet metal tool, and it would not convert. says only flats, and cylinders, or such.

Any advice is appreciated.

dirk_van_der_vaart

That feature is not jet available in Onshape.
There are some workaround,s please have a look
https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/comment/43463#Comment_43463

matthew_stacy

@doug_hills, the first rule of CAD club (with a nod to Tyler Dirden) is that no CAD software in the world will do everything that you want it to do.  For this task I would suggest going old-school.  It's been a while since I went through the math, but engineers and fabricators have been developing flat patterns for cones since long before the first CAD system was even imagined.

Google "cone flat pattern".  I hit on this one:  https://craig-russell.co.uk/cone-calculator/ .

1. Specify the finished dimensions of your cone (top diameter, bottom diameter, and height).
2. Enter those values into the calculator and hit <calculate>
3. Output:  inner radius, outer radius, swept angle

You can model the pattern and formed states in Onshape.  It's not as great as if the software associated flat pattern and formed part automatically ... refer back to Rule #1.  And be patient.  The folks at Onshape push updates every few weeks, and someone in the user community could probably feature-script this without even breaking a sweat.

Here is a simple example in Onshape, utilize outputs from the craig-russell calculator (url above).