Sheet Metal using autocad

This step by step illustrated tutorial provides instruction on creating a basic sheet metal part. Follow the below steps for details.

1) Open Inventor as shown in step one to nine in the following link - Core Rod Extension - and draw a rectangle as shown in Figure 1.


Figure 1.

2) Add constraint to the drawing with general dimension and then edit the dimension as shown in Figure 2.


Figure 2.

3) Now click on {Use the Styles tool on the Sheet Metal Features toolbar to manage the styles for a sheet metal part. The styles include material type and thickness, bend allowances, bend parameters, and corner relief parameters. Most of these parameters apply to the entire part. You can override some, such as the bend relief, corner relief and unfold methods, on individual features} button in "Sheet Metal Features" panel. When "Sheet Metal Styles" dialog box appears it will be with default values as shown in Figure 3. Let us change the value of thickness to 2.5 mm and change the material to "Brass, Soft Yellow" as shown in Figure 4.


Figure 3.


Figure 4.

4) Click on { A face is typically the base feature of a sheet metal part. To start, you sketch a profile that represents the shape of the face, and then you extrude it to create a face. When creating a sheet metal face, you can create a bend between a new face and an existing face. The faces are automatically trimmed or extended as necessary to create the bend. If the faces are parallel, but not coplanar, you can add a double bend. Depending on the distance between the faces, the bends are either trimmed so they are tangent or a new face is created between the two bends. You can also override default sheet metal styles from the Face dialog box as you create your sheet metal face. These settings include how a flat pattern unfolds, and the bend relief settings between faces.} button in "Sheet Metal Features" panel. When "Face" dialog box appears click on "Offset" button as shown in Figure 5. When finished click ok.


Figure 5.

5) Now let us create flange. Click on { Use the Flange tool on the Sheet Metal Features toolbar to add a sheet metal face and a bend to an existing sheet metal face. You can specify the depth and the angle of the flange, and whether it is created inside or outside the existing face. You can also specify the width or offset of the new flange. } button in "Sheet Metal Features" panel. When "Flange" dialog box appears click on "Shape" tab and enter 50 mm for "Distance" and 90.0 deg for "Angle" for "Bend Radius" as shown in Figure 6. When finished click ok.


Figure 6.

6) Now draw a rectangle on the sheet metal with the dimensions as shown in Figure 7.


Figure 7.

7) Click on { A cut removes material from a sheet metal face. You sketch a profile on a sheet metal face and then cut through one or more faces. You can use iFeatures to create a library of punch shapes. Cut features can be used with the Design Element, Mirror, and Pattern tools. You can specify a distance for a cut or it can terminate on a face or work plane. In an assembly, the terminating face or work plane can be on another part. You can also create a cut across a sheet metal bend. Autodesk Inventor temporarily unfolds the sheet metal part so you can sketch the shape to cut on the unfolded face. The cut is correctly formed on the refolded part. } button in "Sheet Metal Features" panel. When "Cut" dialog box appears select the sketch and then select "Distance" and "Thickness" options from the drop down list in "Extents" panel and select the direction of cut as shown in Figure 8.


Figure 8.

8) Now let us create work plane -50 mm offset to "XY" plane. Click on button in "Sheet Metal Features" panel. Clicking the "Work Plane" button select "XY" plane and new work plane would be created on "XY" plane drag the work plane to desired location and enter a distance of -50 mm in the Offset edit box. Click the check mark in the edit box to accept the preview and create the offset work plane as shown in Figure 9.


Figure 9.

9) Select new work plane and go to sketcher work bench. Draw a rectangle with dimensions as shown in Figure 10 after finished click on button to exit sketcher work bench.


Figure 10.

10) Now click on button and select the sketch as the profile as shown in Figure 11 when finished click ok.


Figure 11.

11) Now let us create another work plane with an offset of -25 mm to the work plane created in step 8 as shown in Figure 12. {Follow the instruction given in step 8 to create an work plane}


Figure 12.

12) Now pick the work plane and go to sketcher work bench by clicking on button. Create a small rectangle a create "Colinear Constraint" by selecting the lines which causes selected lines to lie on the same line. Now select "Face" tool and select the sketch as profile as shown in Figure 13, when finished click ok.


Figure 13.

13) Now let us add flange to the sheet metal as shown in Figure 14.


Figure 14.

14) Click on button { You can create bends between sheet metal faces that are intersecting, at an angle, or parallel, but not coplanar. The model edges of the two sheet metal faces must be parallel to create a bend. } in "Sheet Metal Features" panel. When "Bend" dialog box appears enter 5 mm in "Radius" tab and select two edges as shown in Figure 15.


Figure 15.

15) Now let us add one bend with 10 mm radius by picking the edges as shown in Figure 16.


Figure 16.

16) Click on { Use the Corner Chamfer tool on the Sheet Metal Features toolbar to add chamfers to one or more corners of a sheet metal part. You can create chamfers defined by a single distance, a distance and angle, or two distances. All chamfers created in a single operation are one feature } button in "Sheet Metal Features" panel. When "Corner Chamfer" dialog box appears enter 10 mm for distance and select two edges as shown in Figure 17. When finished click ok.


Figure 17.

17) Click on { Use the Corner Round tool on the Sheet Metal Features toolbar to add fillets or rounds to one or more corners of a sheet metal part. All fillets and rounds created in a single operation are one feature } button in "Sheet Metal Features" panel. When "Corner Round" dialog box appears enter 25 mm as the radius and select the corners to rounded as shown in Figure 18. When finished click ok.


Figure 18.

18) Now let us create holes. To create a hole we have to create center points on the face of the flange as shown in Figure 19. Now click on button in "Sheet Metal Features" panel. When "Hole" dialog box appears select the center points that we created as the "Placement" and enter 15 mm for hole diameter as shown in Figure 20.


Figure 19.


Figure 20.

19) In the same way as explained above let us create center point in as shown in Figure 21 and then create hole with 25 mm diameter as shown in Figure 22.


Figure 21.


Figure 22.

20) Finally let is create the holes after creating the center points as shown in Figure 23. With center points as the reference let us create holes with 3 mm diameter as shown in Figure 24.


Figure 23.


Figure 24.

21) That is it we have finished creating the sheet metal part as shown in Figure 25. Let us save the part.


Figure 25.