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Can I flatten curved parts?
skyeparker1
Member Posts: 9 ✭
Hey guys check out my microvan: I want this to be constructed with sheet goods either plywood or aluminum. Question - Is it possible to flatten these shapes and get .dxfs for the laser cutter? Also on the windshield panel, I want to cut out a hole within this panel that is offset from the perimeter edge. Its like I need to flatten, offset and cut out, then unflatten. Is any of this possible? My basic plan was to use the thicken command to create the sheet metal parts but I'm open to doing whatever works.
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https://cad.onshape.com/documents/241199d510deeebdf574fa91/w/a2f97a9292a373299b005309/e/d7836110ed447b8844882c15
This thread is a bit old so this might be unlikely to help. But in case other people are looking for answers, there is a button in the lower right.
Click the protractor that says "Show Analysis Tools" then "Flatten Surfaces." It should flatten even complex surfaces and highlight distortion (if the part is curved in multiple directions) and then you should be able to export a .dxf.
@GregBrown is it possible to acquire flattened results as a surface entity in Onshape? For some reason it passed me by that this was an analysis tool rather than a feature. Does obtaining the flattened surface result not pave the way flowalongsurface type tools?
You can export it as a parasolid and import it in, but the parametric reference will be broken.
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Yeah already got that, I mean surface entity or sketch entity I don't mind, I just mean something that holds reference and can be used downstream. Seems a bit of an odd design in my opinion to take out a static DXF at a point in time, but I'm not super worried because it's for a small project. If it was something that was changing more often then I might be a bit more miffed.