Suggestion for sheetmetal

[JL82]

I model sheet metal parts by SolidWorks in addition to Alibre. There is the great feature for flange in SolidWorks. Flange position can be adjusted by "Offset".

Could this feature be useful Alibre?

 

[swertel]

The entire sheet metal module could use some pragmatic updating.
By pragmatic, I mean send the developers to a machine shop for a day and let them see how sheet metal gets formed: brake press, single punch dies, progressive dies, etc. Then go back and start creating features that align with production methods.

 

[bigseb]

The entire sheet metal module could use some pragmatic updating.
By pragmatic, I mean send the developers to a machine shop for a day and let them see how sheet metal gets formed: brake press, single punch dies, progressive dies, etc. Then go back and start creating features that align with production methods.

I liked your thread. Multiply that by 1000.

 

[HaroldL]

I model sheet metal parts by SolidWorks in addition to Alibre. There is the great feature for flange in SolidWorks. Flange position can be adjusted by "Offset".

Could this feature be useful Alibre?

View attachment 25313

Absolutely - That and the Flange length option above it to allow flange length to be measured from the Tangent of the bend. That was a great when SW added that, would like to see it in Alibre.

The entire sheet metal module could use some pragmatic updating.
By pragmatic, I mean send the developers to a machine shop for a day and let them see how sheet metal gets formed: brake press, single punch dies, progressive dies, etc. Then go back and start creating features that align with production methods.

I remember back when Alibre first got sheet metal there was an announcement that Alibre was "partnering" with Amada to develop a set of tools that would add to the functionality of sheet metal. Not sure what, if anything, came out of that partnership.

I also wrote a long post and submitted suggestions about the enhancements that sheet metal needed. A few of those enhancements have been implemented but there are some key ones that are still missing. I won't go into them here but suffice it to say that sheet metal in Alibre is not what it could be, yet.

I use SolidWorks daily to design sheet metal products, some of them could be designed in Alibre but the vast majority cannot because of it limitations. I'd like to see that change.

 

[swertel]

If we're going to compare Alibre to other CAD packages instead of develop something useful in its own merit, I'd recommend we copy from Solid Edge. Their sheet metal tools are still the best in the market range.

Onshape is definitely coming up with interesting new ways of sheet metal design also, but I'm not sure the feature set is as robust just yet.