Sheet Metal Workbench

[Kunda1]

So it could already be prepared now. It would work on slight changes automatically where we now have quite a workflow. If TNP improvements are included it would become stable all by itself.

Any RT Link branch hackers want to try to get SheetMetal working with Link Branch?

[FBXL5]

Any RT Link branch hackers want to try to get SheetMetal working with Link Branch?

Whenever I use SheetMetal with Link Branch it behaves as expected. I tried a few objects just a minute ago with version 2022.01.11 with no problem. But I'm just a user and no hacker...

[chrisb]

I have these two models of a bracket.

• klammerMirror.fcstd is what it's all about. Laying flat using SheetMetal workbench fails with the mirror, but works fine with the last feature before the mirror.
  
  Report view says Error Analysis: Sheet thickness invalid for this face! at Face24

  

  Bildschirmfoto 2022-04-05 um 23.16.29.png (31.73 KiB) Viewed 1700 times

  klammerMirror.fcstd

  (57.23 KiB) Downloaded 32 times

• If I make the mirror manually by cloning the sketch and creating the corresponding pad, then laying flat works as expected.

  klammerClone.fcstd

  (74.51 KiB) Downloaded 23 times

Code: Select all

OS: macOS 10.16
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.20.27936 (Git)
Build type: Release
Python 3.9.10, Qt 5.12.9, Coin 4.0.0, OCC 7.5.3
Locale: C/Default (C)
Installed mods: 
  * FC_SU
  * DynamicData 2.45.0
  * FeedsAndSpeeds-master
  * fcgear
  * A2plus 0.4.54b
  * fasteners
  * sheetmetal
  * ExplodedAssembly
  * Curves 0.3.0

[FBXL5]

but works fine with the last feature before the mirror.

I think the mirror tools are the trouble makers. The paper clip https://wiki.freecadweb.org/SheetMetal_ ... Paper_clip had similar problems.

I would build it like this avoiding mirror features:

Klammer.png (32.92 KiB) Viewed 1650 times

klammerWithoutMirror.FCStd

(149.96 KiB) Downloaded 26 times

But it doesn't fit your approach to place dimensions well. At least for the middle part.

[chrisb]

Thanks for the model. There are more to be found in the original topic: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic. ... 31#p586226 .

[sfgrayson]

Today I discovered sketch-on-sheetmetal. Currently this name does not indicate what it is or what it does. It got me thinking that it could be beneficial to adopt industry standard terms for functionality. In Solidworks this function is known as a Normal Cut, or cut *normal-to* the material's thickness. Maybe the FreeCAD equivalent would be Normal-Pocket or Normal Hole, considering the sketch must be extruded all the way through the material's thickness.

Just a thought. thank you to the devs for their hard work.

[FBXL5]

industry standard terms

I didn't realise that there is an industry standard for naming CAD tools

I agree, that some names could use improvement...
But as long as a lot of users and devellopers aren't native speakers of 'murican or bri'ish English we have to live with "interesting" named tools. And translations, too.

[chrisb]

To me the name "Sketch on SheetMetal" seems quite natural. Especially as it could be seen as a counterpart to Curves workbench's "Sketch on surface".

[adrianinsaval]

I'm not on the loop with sheet metal workbench but I'll say this, "Sketch on SheetMetal" doesn't communicate a cut to me at all, yeah if you use curves workbench too you might make the association, but out of the blue I wouldn't guess it does the same as the normal cut sfgrayson mentions. I'll add that "perpendicular" would communicate the meaning better to me as I may think of "Normal" as a synonym of common, not sure if that's just me being stupid and/or non native to english.

[Kunda1]

Heads-up: since Addon Manager is all souped-up now, we don't need SheetMetal's version visible anymore in the dropdown workbench menu. Therefore I'm submitting this PR https://github.com/shaise/FreeCAD_SheetMetal/pull/226 to remove it