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Documentation RapidCAD™ Sheet

Description of Features and Parameters in RapidCAD™ Sheet Application

1. Solid Modeling Operation

      • Gauge: It indicates the standard thickness of sheet metal for a specific material. We have to select the gauge thickness before starting the design in Sheetmetal. We have a list of gauge thicknesses for all kinds of sheet metal materials.
        For example, Stainless Steel, Gauge 18 is a thickness of 1.270mm. Custom thickness is also available.
      • K Factor: The K factor is used to calculate the developed length of flat sheet metal required to make a bend of a specific radius and angle in a design. It is defined by the location of the sheet metal material’s neutral bend line with respect to the thickness. The neutral bend line’s position varies according to the type of sheet metal material used in a part. The numeric references range from 0 to 1. The K factor is a ratio between the distances from the neutral bend line to the inside bends radius and the material thickness.
      • Flange: A flange feature consists of a face and bends connected to an existing face along a straight edge. To add a flange feature, you select one or more edges and specify the size and position of the material added. You can add edge flanges to one or more edges. General edge flange characteristics include: Thickness is linked to the thickness of the sheet metal part. The sketch line of the profile must lie on the selected edge. It has the following parameters: position, length, width, angle, and bend radius.
      • Hem: Hemming is the process in which the edge is rolled flush to itself, while a seam joins the edges of two materials. It is formed by bending the sheet edge to 180 degrees. It has the following parameters: Position, length, width, angle, radius.
      • Tab: Tab is a new material that is added to the Sheetmetal flange. It is added to a sheet metal face parallel to the same face. It has the following parameters: Position, Length, Width.
      • Bend relief: A bend relief is an incision cut along the sides of a planned bend. They prevent tearing and part deformation during the bending process. Relief helps to control the sheet metal material behavior and to prevent unwanted deformation. Relief takes into account any material stretching necessary for unbending the sheet metal model into an accurate flat model for manufacture. Bend Relief comes in two types.
        • Rectangular Bend Relief
        • Obround Bend Relief
      • Contacting Flanges/Hems Gap: It is the gap between two flanges and hems that share a common corner. We need to give the gap distance as an input.

2. Units

    • At the start of the application, the units have to be selected, which is mm or inch.

3. Material Selection

    • It is the selection of the material before starting the design.  The available material is Carbon Steel; Aluminum; Stainless Steel; Galvanized Steel; Brass

4. Common Shapes

    • RapidCAD™ Sheet has a readily available library of shapes that can be easily created with a set of parameters.  Enter the values of the parameters and you instantaneously get the shapes. The following shapes are available.

Z: The Z shape has the following parameters Length, Width, Width, Height, Angle, and Radius

Filleted Flange: It has the following parameters Width, Height, and Diameter

C: The C shape has the following parameters Length, Width, Height, Angle, and Radius.

Hat: The Hat shape has the following parameters Length, Width, height, angle, Radius

Rolled Tube: It has the following parameters Length, Diameter, Angle

L: The L shape has the following parameters Length, Width, Length, Angle, and Radius.

Tray: The Tray has the following parameters Length, Width, Height, Angle, and Radius

C with Filleted Flanges: It has the following parameters Length, Width, Height, Diameter, Angle, and Radius

5. Fillet

    • Fillet is the rounding of an interior or exterior corner/edge of a part by using a radius parameter.

6. Chamfer

    • The chamfer is a transitional edge between two faces of a sheet edge. It is given by distance on one edge and distance on another edge from the corner point.

7. Bend

    • It is the plastic deformation of the sheet over an axis, creating a change in the part’s geometry
      • Swap Bended Side: This option controls/decides the fixed shape for the bent sheet metal, it can be swapped between the two faces.

8. Holes

    • RapidCAD™ Sheet has a library of hole types to be created on the face of sheet metal. The hole type can be selected from the below-mentioned list and it can be positioned on the sheet face with X and Y values. The hole can also be patterned with Repeat X and Repeat Y options.

- Hole types

      • Rectangle
      • Triangle
      • Circle
      • Semicircle
      • Slot
      • Oval

9. Custom Cut

    • It is the creation of a cut-out feature on the face of the sheet metal. It is created by first creating a sketch of the profile to be cut out from the sheet metal face. When a face on which the custom cut is to be done is selected the 2D editing user interface comes up automatically, here the sketch is created and the dimensions are edited as required and now the 3D editor is selected to view the 3D design of the sheet metal with the cutouts.

10. 2D editor

    • It is the Graphical user interface for the 2D entities that is the Sketch creation environment. It is used to create the Base flange of the sheet metal and also create custom cutouts on the face of the sheet metal. It has applications like the Line, Arc, and Common shapes.

11. Undo/Redo

    • Undo/Redo is used to go back and forth in a sequence between the features created on the sheet metal design.

12. Delete

    • It is used to delete entities selected on the screen

13. Reset

    • The reset button is used for converting all the menus and entities back into the default state of operation.

14. Zoom

    • It is used for Zooming in and out of the screen to visualize the design/model. Other states of Zoom are 100% fit and Zoom to Fit
      • Zoom in
      • Zoom out
      • Zoom 100%
      • Zoom to fit

15. Pan

    • Pan option is used to move the Design in the screen using the mouse left button to visualize it comfortably.

16. 3D editor

    • This is the Graphical User Interface screen where the Design/model can be viewed in 3D mode and it has applications to handle the design for other operations like viewing, selecting edges for sheet metal feature creation.

17. Start Over

    • Start Over is used to begin the sheet metal design from the start when midway of designing the sheet metal

18. Fold Sheetmetal

    • When in flattened condition, this application helps in Folding the sheet metal back into the folded condition

19. Unfold sheet metal

    • When in Folded condition, this application helps in Unfolding the sheet metal to a flattened condition.

20. Render options

    • These options help in viewing the sheet metal design on the 3D screen as shaded or wireframe
      • Shaded with wireframe
      • Shaded
      • Wireframe

21. Projections

    • These options help in viewing the design in different projections like Front, Back, Left, Right, Top, Bottom, Isometric states.

22. Creating Line

    • This can be done on the 2D sketcher environment to create a Base flange or make a custom cut on the face of the sheet metal. The created line’s dimension and orientation can be controlled with Geometrical constraints and dimensional constraints like Horizontal, Vertical, Parallel, Perpendicular, extend to the line, extend both lines to intersection, chamfer, fillet, and fix

Horizontal Constraint

Makes the line fix and change the alignment on a Horizontal Position

Parallel Constraint

Makes the line parallel to other selected lines.

Fillet

Fillet is the rounding of an edge of a sketch by using a radius parameter.

Collinear Constraint

Makes the line collinear to another line.

Perpendicular Line

Makes the line perpendicular to other selected line.

Chamfer

The chamfer is a transitional edge between two lines of the sketch. It is given by distance on one edge and distance on another edge from the corner point.

Extend to intersection

This option will extend the line, up to the selected line.

Fix

It will fix the sketches.

Extend both line to intersection

This option will extend two selected lines and merge them automatically.

Vertical Constraint

Makes the line fix and changes the alignment on a Vertical Constraint.

23. Creating Arc

    • Similar to the line above, the Arcs can be created and they can be controlled using Geometrical and Dimensional constraints like Flip, Tangent, Fillet, and Fix

24. Choosing a Shape

    • The other option of creating the Base flange other than the sketcher is by creating the following shapes – Rectangle, Triangle, Circle, RATL, RATR, Ring, Frame, RWIC, U, DC, Slot

25. History

    • The history Tab keeps a record of all the features created in a Design with all the details like Serial number, dimensions of parameters, and other details of the features

26. Finish

    • This tab gives the information on the Surface finish of the model. The different standards available are   USA Ra- Micrometer; USA Ra -Micro Inch; USA Rms-Micro Inch

27. Properties

    • This tab gives information about the Overall Flat sheet size as length and width.

RapidCAD Sheet: Export Options

RapidCAD Sheet: Creating Flange

RapidCAD Sheet: Creating Hem

RapidCAD Sheet: Creating Tab

RapidCAD Sheet: Creating Common Shapes

RapidCAD Sheet: Creating Fillet

RapidCAD Sheet: Creating Chamfer

RapidCAD Blade: Creating Inner Chamfer

RapidCAD Sheet: Creating Holes

RapidCAD Sheet: Creating Custom Cut

RapidCAD Sheet: Fold & Unfold

RapidCAD Sheet: History Option

RapidCAD Sheet: Finish Properties

RapidCAD Sheet: Rect Relief

RapidCAD Sheet: Sketcher Screen

RapidCAD Sheet: Sketcher Curve Options

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