Sheetmetal + Move Face woes

Ben_Misegades

So in the creation of a simple flange in the middle of the edge of a sheet metal part, I've found several things that are quite irritating, and I'm really hoping this can be fixed and/or improved on asap.

So here is the edge in question. I wanted to add a perpendicular flange in the middle of it, easy enough.


But wait, I can't actually do that in OS, so I'll have to add a full-length flange first:


Alright, well, since in OS you can't change the sketch geometry of the flange itself, I'll have to use the "move face" command to adjust the flange to the length I need it. OK, so now I've got the right length flange, but what happened to my gap? All of a sudden my two adjoining parts have lost their nice, tight joint.


So, once again, out comes the move face tool to try to fix my gap back. But wait, it doesn't work at all on this joint?



What gives?

What I'd really REALLY like to see, and soon, is this:

- Flanges of any width can be created anywhere along the edge of sheet metal, regardless of what is next to it or what kind of corner it is.
- Flange geometry can be sketched/altered. Having to use move face and cut extrudes and so on to shape a flange gets pretty tedious
- Move face command needs to be bulletproofed. I've had too many instances where it simply does not work. Either make it always work, or offer alternative solutions

konstantin_shiriazdanov

it took one sketch and 3 features for me to make a flange in the middle of edge, but corner relief still is not adjustable

Ben_Misegades

@konstantin_shiriazdanov that method works somewhat better, thanks. It's still too many steps to make something simple, though. This should be accomplished with one sketch and one feature, there's no reason to have any more than that.

konstantin_shiriazdanov

agree, in SW there is "Miter Flange" instrument that can do this in one feature
http://help.solidworks.com/2012/english/solidworks/sldworks/hidd_sheet_metal_dve_mitered_flange.htm