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Can Onshape please make it so that the flattening tool can also project into a sketch
Legends_Air_Force_LAF
Member Posts: 2 ✭
0
Answers
This is a great request. I often want to take the flat image of sheet metal and print it out for 1:1 stencils. That process is super easy in other CAD systems so allowing for a way to have flat pattern sketches would mostly solve that.
Interesting, at first when I read this I thought it was about the flatten surface tool, but it sounds like it’s a normal sheet metal flat pattern you’re after?
The flat pattern is possible to insert into a drawing, set the drawing to 1:1, hide bend data and bend lines if you like and export whatever format you prefer. You can set up a drawing template for this if it’s something you do often.
From the surface level understanding of sheet metal I have I think it may be possible to access the flattened context to imprint from in part studio with a custom feature, @Derek_Van_Allen_BD probably knows best.
I just tried another thing, if you select all faces in the sheet metal flat viewport with box select, then right click and export to dxf/dew it exports the whole pattern as one 2D file. So that’s an even faster way to get the flat pattern exported to print.
The flatten surface tool does not put out a parametrically reusable result, so I thhink that @wille_j's first assumption is absolutely valid. IF it coud project into a sketch, we could use the projected sketch to make something meaningful out of it much easier INSIDE Onshape.
You're right, flatten surface only supports export, so it would require an export-import workflow to work off a flattened surface. The update-file is reasonably stable but definitely not the typical Onshape-polished workflow. An option to 'Store in new tab' would at least not clutter your download folder.
I have a feeling it would need to be some 'update flat pattern' function still, as it seems the flattening calculations are not native to the FeatureScript Parasolid environment but some other computation environment.