I'm struggling to automate hoppers on SLDW (2023). I encounter a problem however as soon as I want to "reverse the direction" in the sheet metal settings I find myself with an error that I can't solve (except by reducing the thickness, which doesn't make sense in what I do).
A little clarification: -these are plastic parts (which means thicknesses ranging from 5 to 25mm) -I work with a K factor that changes according to the thickness because it is always 2 mm from the bottom of my folds (e.g. for 25 mm thickness my K factor will be 2/25; 0.08) Thank you for your help :)
The problem is that you don't increase this radius when you reverse the direction: Normally you have to add a thickness to the radius otherwise the bottom folds cross because the bending radius is too large compared to the total radius of all the folds (picture) as shown here: Solution reduce the number of folds, or enlarge the radius of the sketch 1. To be sure, sometimes I put a large radius to sketch 1 also 20-30mm or more and then once the function is successful I quietly decrease it so that it doesn't show any error. And if I'm mistaken, I'll go back to a slightly larger radius.
I tried well, but even by putting an R of 50 or 100 on sketch 1 as well as in the sheet metal settings and increasing the number of bends to 4. I get the same result.
I attached the file, maybe the error is elsewhere without me realizing it. Square round hopper. SLDPRT (213.8 KB)
The problem comes from the bending radius. In your case, the minimum radius to apply is 10mm. Try with that and you'll see that you can reverse the direction. If you want to stay with a radius of 0.1mm with it, you'll have to review your hopper sketch because the first crease dies in the start of your top semicircle, so I think it comes from that.
In the sheet metal parameters = small radius (that of the bending vein for sheet metal for plastic I don't know) On the other hand, there is a large radius in the sketch. Impossible for me to open under SW2020. (Future version). In theory, you also need the same number of segments on the high sketch as on the low sketch:
For me 2 rectangles then 2 leaves for sketch 1 like sketch 2 then I play with the rays and much less problem as well (solution of a Visiativ advisor 17-18 years ago...) see attachment Hopper.SLDPRT (251.2 KB)
Rant: On the other hand, a simple round rectangle hopper has been a real hassle under SW for years. When will there be a version that finally knows how to make this kind of part by really telling us the problem or by automating the radius or number of folds so that the part is feasible. It's been 15 years that I've been complaining about the sheet metal module for this kind of transformation and never any improvement on the other hand you can work in the clouds... Rant:
To be a little clearer I don't bend with a press brake, I machine my part and I machine my folds with a conical cutter on a CNC (so no front radius for me), but for that I still have to get my bending pins back.
sbadenis, on your drawing it works very well unless you start to enlarge the dimensions of the rectangle a little randomly (e.g. :p the length 200 ->500). In this case, my goal is to then put equations to get out of unfolded states by filling in an excel sheet, so if a change in the dimension crashes the drawing, it loses all its interest.
Either there is a parameter that I don't understand, because the sheet metal module is quite new to me, or it's impossible to automate?
The sheet metal module on this kind of part regularly bugs as indicated in my previous message. And indeed it crashes or not randomly depending on the dimensions, angles, if the 2 surfaces are or are not //... To automate it would require a smarter Sw tool like logitrace, with pre-traced shapes that can be modified at will
