Working with Sheet Metal Parts - Inventor 2013 and Inventor LT 2013 Essentials - page 221

CHAPTER 10
Working with
Sheet Metal Parts
Sheet metal fabrication follows rules. For bending operations, certain
things are not allowed. For example, you can't fold material if you cannot cut
the part in the flat pattern, and material comes in certain standard thicknesses.
It's entirely possible to construct sheet metal parts using solid modeling
tools, such as Extrude and Revolve, but working with specialized tools elimi-
nates steps, and because these tools work with styles, changing the style that
the part is based on updates the part.
In this chapter, you will create different parts using the sheet metal tools
of the Autodesk ® Inventor ® software. The operation of these tools is essen-
tially similar to other solid modeling tools, so they should be easy to learn.
Defining sheet metal material styles
Building sheet metal components
Preparing the part for manufacture
Documenting sheet metal parts
Defining Sheet Metal Material Styles
Like the dimension and layer styles you explored in Chapter 5, “Customizing
Styles and Templates,” sheet metal defaults are styles used to establish consis-
tency between components. You can create these styles within a part (with a
scope limited to that part) or save them into a template to be available as you
create new parts.
1. Make certain that the 2013 Essentials project file is active, and then
open the file c10-01.ipt from the Parts/Chapter​10 folder.
2. Click the Sheet Metal Defaults tool (Figure 10.1) on the Setup
panel of the Sheet Metal tab, and click the edit icon next to the
Sheet Metal Rule drop-down.