Weldments & curved sections

[GLJCAD]

Ive started using weldments/structural members for some of my profiles & its ideal for quick frames like tables or boxes with straight profile sections.
Some of the welded frames I have to design have curved tubes or box sections
From the quick weldment sketch I created it was great for visual purposes, but say if a particular curved section profile would then need to be shown in its straight state (for purchasing from a laser cutters) Ive struggled to use the weldment

Previously I had this section in its straight form & applied the flex tool to give me the required curved state in the assembly. This was great for ordering in the part as I could have 2 configurations & 2 drawing sheets for the laser & fabricator but I then lost the 'adaptability' of the weldment assembly

I was thinking could I use the weldment sketch to drive the sketch within a seperate part but Im getting a bit confused & am unsure of the quickest & cleanest way to do it
Alternatively I tried saving the weldment bodies as parts & tried using the flex tool to straighten the part but had no success

Any quick tips or guides would be appreciated

[jcapriotti]

Do you really need a "Straighten" view? Could you just show the length in the cut list? You could create a cut list property for the flattened state length. It would take some trial and error to figure out how much to subtract from the total length to get the correct flat length.

[GLJCAD]

Ideally yes I'll need a straightened profile too as the sections are laser cut & they'll need the dumensioned drawings. Tgese syraight sections will have additional holes or slots laser cut & then we'll roll the straight

[gupta9665]

Check the solution here https://www.engineersrule.com/impossibl ... ed-i-beam/

[mike miller]

Check this method out. It can be a little finicky but it seems to work quite well.

This is obviously for small radius bends, but you could use a similar approach with a large one.

[Lucas]

Check this method out. It can be a little finicky but it seems to work quite well.

This is obviously for small radius bends, but you could use a similar approach with a large one.

That's a cool method, did not know that Combine transforms the solids into sheet body.

There is a warning that appears when the Flatten feature is expanded "Cannot display bend line for this bend". Is there a way to fix it?

[mike miller]

That's a cool method, did not know that Combine transforms the solids into sheet body.

There is a warning that appears when the Flatten feature is expanded "Cannot display bend line for this bend". Is there a way to fix it?

image.png

Yeah, that comes from expanding the Flat Pattern folder. DON'T DO THAT!!

I honestly have NO idea why everything is fine until you click the little "carrot" to expand it. As soon as you do that, you'll immediately see a warning for each bend. BTW, collapsing it and pressing Ctrl+Q makes it go away again.

[Lucas]

Yeah, that comes from expanding the Flat Pattern folder. DON'T DO THAT!!

I honestly have NO idea why everything is fine until you click the little "carrot" to expand it. As soon as you do that, you'll immediately see a warning for each bend. BTW, collapsing it and pressing Ctrl+Q makes it go away again.

Yep, I noticed that. Looks like there's a bug in the warning

¯\_(ツ)_/¯