Fusion 360 - Unfolding Sheet Metal Tubing

Link to vote for improved sheet metal tools in Fusion:
forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion...
This video will show how to create a flat pattern from coped tubing. The video will also show that Fusion lacks some core tools that would make this job much easier. We'll use Autodesk Inventor to show how those tools work.
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[@nerdgirls3dprinting185]

I really liked your ideas. They will be getting my vote.

[@fcknhellmate]

This is life saver for me. Brilliant video :)

[@Alex-ez2ym]

thanks for posting this. this is definitely going to help me finish my datsun cage

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

Glad it will help. It's something I've been meaning to do for a bit but you pushed me over the edge to get it done. Thank you.

[@elijahcbr6009]

Awsome vid man thanks. You got my vote.

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

Thank you, and thanks for voting!

[@mheuuj]

great explanation!

[@shophacks]

Thanks again, Kevin!

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

Shop Hacks Hey Tony. I need to do an update video for this now. It can be done a little easier now that bodies can be converted to sheet metal. Still have to manually rip, but that can be the last step rather than one of the first.

[@oxigenoterapianorte]

Sos un genio!!!! gracias

[@mattkan2876]

Nice tutorial

[@irrops]

Happy New Year Kevin!

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

You too Peter.

[@nguyenvuhoanglong3418]

I have to use fusion 360 every day for work....so much painful and crazy....they did not focus on the drawing but what should the CAD engineer and workshop/factory do to QC the part after machining?

[@adambergendorff2702]

Sheet metal needs to be tied together with surface function, if you could create the part as a surface, unfold it then thicken, you would always have cuts normal to the surface. The other horrible part is when the software is smart enough to give you a warning, it knows where the problem is, but give such a vague description, instead of a red dot or something on the part. I have had times when I blew the part up till I could see an error which was not more than a couple thousandths. I'm going to create a sheet metal part thats only .001 thick and see what happens, Thanks again for a video you did 4 yrs ago!

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

I think you may be being a little hard on the software here. You can use the unfold feature to do the thing you are asking for. As for the errors, I know Autodesk is continually trying to help improve communicating what the errors mean or where they are. It's just a really hard thing to do. Glad the video was helpful for you.

[@cryd1239]

Hi Kevin, thank you for the video! Really great :-D Quick question, once the shape is flattened, can I edit the shape some more and then re-wrap providing I don't touch the flat side that was cut for the purpose of unwrapping? I have a design that I want to wrap around an almost cylindrical object for 3D printing.

[@Dr3450]

Yes. You can edit it in either orientation. This is one of the best ways to make patterned holes in a cylinder. Lay it flat, make your patterns then reroll

[@DavidHaile_profile]

Kevin - 3:15 into the video - I found by trial and error that the gap between the ends can be 0.001". I've made a tube that accepts 1" square tubing on a 45 degree angle through a 1.9 OD tube. It leaves more space to fill at the sides due to the vertical cut on a hole that is angled, but it is good enough for what we want to do with it. We're messing with the tubing cutter on our new Arclight Dynamics plasma cutting table.

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

David Haile Hi David. Thanks for the insight. I hope you guys made it home OK and you enjoyed your week with us in class. Let me know how the tube cutting is going.

[@labassproject2897]

i have a dwg file and i cant do that i already try to convert to sheet metal and i dont even can select the body 5 days trying to do a simple task, i need to get a flat pattern please help!!!!

[@labassproject2897]

i have a really big problem, 5 days with no sleep beacuse of that, im not a designer, im an ingeneer, but some days ago a customer came and gave me a bottle, he wants to cover the bottle in fabric, so he needs the matrix to cut the fabric, i made a 3d scan, take fotos and 3d modeling in 3ds max using some fotos and mesurements to get a nice 3d model, but i cant convert in to a plane , y divide the object in 12 pieces and try to flatten, unfold etc but i really cant do it can u help me please?

[@jacobtuma7595]

Awesome info, thank you for sharing. With using that work around how would you recommend going about doing that with a piece of tubing that has a bend in the middle and notched on both ends

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

Hi Jacob. Fusion's sheet metal engine can only flatten things that are able to be made in a press brake, and can't calculate deformation. So if you think about a bent tube, some of the material would be stretched and some of the material would be compressed when unfolded so Fusion's unfolding engine can't calculate that. I would love it if it could!

[@abramfriesen9834]

I like it do you have time to show me how to draw a water tank for a truck 10.000lt

[@peterjansen4894]

They made us wait for years for the sheet metal tools we have now. Autodesks trackrecord is not that great concerning listening to users..... The ideastation is filled with ideas that have been there for years. But I'm very happy with Fusion.

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

I don't think they wanted to. Fusion is such a broad tool for who its audience is. I think they had so much to flesh out for each group that they just didn't have the resources for vertical functionality like sheet metal. I think with Fusion they have done a decent job listening to users. Sometimes to add a feature, the core of the product (the stuff under the hood) has to be written first. I'm guilty when I get a chance to speak with Autodesk developers to say "You already have this Inventor, just make it work in Fusion". They then explain that it isn't just a copy and paste job to add the functionality since Fusion is very modern and multi-platform. So I think that is why sometimes you see an Ideastation post with lots of votes that doesn't get implemented. The core just might not be there yet to support it and the internal priorities to get there don't match the voter requests. I have no knowledge of how those decisions are made, just speculation on my part.

[@scobob]

Curious as to why you didn't select the next option down in Fusion 360, split body?

[@valentinlishkov9540]

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[@rafasamurai]

Hey, I've designed a curved guardrail using tubes, but now I can't figure out the length I need to cut to get it bent. Could I use the sheet metal tools to un-bend and straighten the metal tubing so I can calculate how much stock I'll be using? Is there any other way I could do that ?

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

No. Sheet metal can’t deal with deformation when creating a flat pattern. Your tube would curve in two directions at the bend to create a flat pattern. How did you create it? Did you use the pipe or sweep command? If so, you have a cent like sketch you can measure to find your length approximation.

[@user-if2yo3lb4i]

я тебя не понимаю но ты молодец на пальцах объяснил, спасибо

[@johnbickford9221]

I voted

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

John Bickford Thank you! And thanks for watching.

[@Steelcrafted]

When you went to make the cope in the sheet metal part, why didn't you just stay in the solid environment and extrude the circle, then do a combine/cut, with a tool body? That would save you from having to press pull away anything remaining...??

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

I’d have to go rewatch to be certain, but the goal of the cut is to be perpendicular to the face so when you create the flat pattern the edges aren’t beveled. If you just did a subtraction the cut wouldn’t be normal (perpendicular).

[@barrybroadbent4588]

I cannot select a curved stationery face like you do.

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

Yeah sorry about that. You aren’t doing anything incorrectly, it’s a change that was made to the software at some point. Let me see if I can get an answer as to why from the Fusion team.

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

I take that back. That was a different sheet metal video that I did that I was thinking of. Did you define your tube using the sheet metal commands?

[@irrops]

Viewer jumping up and down...”Do tab and slot next!”

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

Uff....that one may be a bit above my pay grade. Maybe it could be done but it would be tedious. I think Autodesk will have to add that one to the core tools for it to happen.

[@irrops]

Mechanical Advantage . I saw that solidworks had incorporated it. I will have to put it in the idea section. On my way to Tel Aviv later today. Cheers.

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

@@irrops If you post it, I'll vote for it. Have fun in Tel Aviv and stay safe.

[@KAREKINFPV]

There is no tool to unwrap a curved solid that's not sheetmetal. It's very frustrating. exactflat is crazy expensive

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

That is a pretty complex task. ExactFlat actually performs FEA analysis ok the surface to create its flat pattern of a surface that isn’t meant to easily unfold.