Sheet metal features and context menus sit in the Mechanical Browser. See Mechanical Browser for Sheet Metal to understand the general principles. This article describes the particular properties and context menus for each node type in the Mechanical Browser.
When working with sheet metal parts, clicking the root node in Mechanical Browser, displays the properties of entire drawing. Sometimes these properties are referred to as the global Sheet Metal Context associated with the drawing: each Sheet Metal part shares this context by default.
Since BricsCAD V21 it is possible to assign a local Sheet Metal context for given solid, which allows to define Sheet Metal parts with different design parameters, and most importantly, to the change the part thickness. Before BricsCAD V21 all the parts in modelspace maust have the same thickness, which forced user to spread the parts with a different thickness to different blocks or components. Scenarios with multiple imported bodies engaging SmConvert and SmAssemblyExport also benefit from this new feature. Another advantage worth noticing is that the local Sheet Metal context can define its own Bend Table.
To switch the context of a solid to local
Do the following:
- Select the body in Mechanical Browser
- In Sheet Metal section switch Context Type from Global context to Context for solid
Notice that the SmConvert command, in case of multiple input with different thicknesses, switches some contexts to local automatically.
Sheet metal global properties sit in the bottom part of the Mechanical Browser.
Global Properties |
Thickness: global sheet metal material thickness. |
Bend radius: default radius of bend features; it can be changed per bend as well.
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Sharp bend radius limit: maximum bend radius to be considered a sharp (regular) bend. Used in SmConvert and SmReliefCreate commands to distinguish between regular and lofted bends.
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Bend relief width: width of the cut near a single bend.
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Relief extension: size of the bend or corner relief extension.
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Corner relief diameter: default diameter of a circular corner relief.
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Junction gap: gap between two adjacent flanges.
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Junction alignment: controls the alignment of junction faces with the corresponding corner relief faces.
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Flange split gap: gap between the thickness faces of a flange or the adjacent bend when splitting, see SmSplit.
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Flange split extension: controls the depth cut of an adjacent flange in case of a flange split.
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Rib profile radius: radius of a tool, which creates the rib.
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Rib round radius: radius of the fillet between the flange and a rib.
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Rib fillet radius: radius of the rib control curve filleting, see Working with Form and Rib Features.
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Unfolding: parameters for the unfolded representation. Default K-Factor: K-Factor for the bend radius equal to the thickness, see K-Factor. Bend table: displays the Open dialog for bend tables in CSV file format. |
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Bend line extent: controls how far a bend line extends beyond the unfolding boundary (zero and negative values are allowed).
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Unfolding mode: controls the appearance of form features in the unfolded representation.
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Feature properties display automatically when selecting a feature in the Mechanical Browser.
Right click a feature to display the feature context menu.
Feature Context Menus |
Common tools:
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Flange feature |
Right click a flange feature:
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Bend feature |
Right click on a bend feature:
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Lofted Bend feature |
Right click on a lofted bend feature:
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Wrong Bend feature |
Right click on a wrong bend feature:
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Bend Relief feature |
Right click on bend relief feature:
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Corner relief feature |
Right click on corner relief feature:
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Junction feature |
Right click on junction feature:
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Miter feature |
Right click on miter feature: |
Form feature |
Right click on form feature:
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Tab feature |
Right click on tab feature:
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T-Junction feature |
Right click on T-junction feature:
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T-Tab feature |
Right click on T-tab feature:
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Feature Properties |
Common property: Name: the name of the selected sheet metal feature. Optionally type a name for the feature. The default name of a feature is the feature type plus an increment, e.g. Flange_1, Flange_2, ... |
Flange feature |
Click a flange feature: Thickness: current thickness. The value is read-only; it equals the sheet metal component thickness property. |
Bend feature |
Click a bend feature:
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Bend relief |
Click a bend relief feature:
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Corner relief |
Click a corner relief feature:
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Junction feature |
Click a junction feature:
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Miter feature |
Click a miter feature:
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Form feature |
Click a form feature:
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Bevel feature |
Click a bevel feature:
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