The ultimate API Challenge

[brettlong]

The ultimate API Challenge

I work for a company that mostly produces large castings. However, on a number of occasions we have to convert the casting to a fabrication for delivery or price purposes. It's near impossible to duplicate these complex shapes using Alibre Sheetmetal. Is it possible to write an API that would measure individual surfaces of a model and convert them into their respective flat shapes? Even if the API only generated a 2d outline of the flat surface, that would be enough to program a CNC plasma table. I'm not an API programmer, but i thought it would be something that someone may want to try. I'm sure there's a lot of money to be made.

 

[alexfranke]

This one sounds interesting, too. I'm not sure I completely understand the lingo, though...

Are you saying you want to take a solid and essentially flatten it (like you might do to a cardboard box) so that it could be folded back up into the original shape? Or, what I think I'm hearing is that you just want the part "exploded" (so to speak) into a bunch of unconnected 2D surfaces that represent the faces of the original part. Is this right?

Is it only flat faces we'd be dealing with, or is it curves, features, etc?

Could you send me a verison 8.2 part as an example?

Is there a lot of general interest in this type of functionality?

Thanks,
-Alex

 

[jwknecht]

If it means to convert a regular part to a sheet metal part (that can be unfolded), then YES!!!! That is like the number 1 Sheet Metal request.

 

[brettlong]

Allow me to clarify (I hope). Our parts are manufactured from large iron & steel castings (up to 50,000 lbs). On numerous occasions we are required to make a fabricated version of the part. Sometimes these parts have lofted features. The API would take the surfaces a part and flatten them to be used in a nesting program for cnc plasma burning. There's really no need to refold. I hope this helped.

 

[alexfranke]

Hi all -- sorry it's taken me a bit to respond to this one.

brettlong, the "Sometimes these parts have lofted features" part of this sounds like it might be ultra difficult if not impossible, unless I'm missing something. (e.g. how does one accurately flatten, say, an orange peel?)

to be used in a nesting program for cnc plasma burning

I know what all these words mean individually -- including CNC -- but put together I really have no idea what this is... :cry:

Are we talking about an enumeration of the sides of a part and their dimensions or area?

If it means to convert a regular part to a sheet metal part (that can be unfolded), then YES!!!! That is like the number 1 Sheet Metal request.

I admit -- this sounds like a wonderfully fascinating problem -- even more so than the concrete design problem. Let me ask around a bit at my son's play group (the one with the freakishly high concentration of mathemeticians and computer scientists) and see if anyone has any ideas...

I don't think sheet metal is a part of what I get with Alibre Xpress -- Does it essentially start out with a 2D drawing like "normal" parts?

Cheers,
Alex Franke

 

[indesign]

Alex,

Sadly sheetmetal only comes with pro or higher (or maybe an addon for others). A CNC Plasma cutter (torch) in simple terms is a torch cutting out flat plates (like a sheetmetal form) with the moves controlled by a computer.

I hope this helps in understanding the need is actually closer to taking a skin of the part and flattening it to make it like a sheetmetal part to be formed or bent.

By saying formed I figure a little explanation is in hand. More simple terms so no bashing here. A form can be made by using a press to push the metal into a cavity with another formed punch. This both stretches and distorts the metal to get it in the desired shape. Sometimes it has to be done in stages but without knowing the full extent of this person's part designs then it would not be possible to fully figure the design intent.

 

[jwknecht]

Re:

I don't think sheet metal is a part of what I get with Alibre Xpress -- Does it essentially start out with a 2D drawing like "normal" parts?

Sadly, no. In sheet metal, you construct a sheet metal "tab" first. That is the part that is like the 2D sketch for the regular parts. Then it gets different. After you have this tab, you build flanges from it, and then from any other flanges. This construction method by itself is very restrictive in terms of the shapes that you can get.

What would be nice is to make the part as a part not a sheet metal part. And then, convert that part to a sheetmetal part to unfold it to a flat pattern. This is possible in other programs.

To see how Alibre Sheet Metal works, the best thing to do it to look at the Sheet Metal Tutorial. That will give you the basic idea.

 

[larthen]

I believe it is quite possible

I guess it is quite easy, however you should forget about Sheetmetal. But before we come into "when" and "where" terms, I need to know two things before I am sure I know "how". Are these lonely metal sheets, into which you would like to divide your part, curved or flat? If they are flat, then the work is easier. If they are curved then you should precise whether they should be calculated into raw flat sheets with all these additional milimeters here and there to make them fit after beeing pressed or not.
As for now I believe I can write a program doing what's needed, but I would need a sample part to see what we are really talking about.
The second thing is the version possesed by your firm. Do you have just Alibre Express or Pro? Is the "import surface" (the purple one) icon available or not?

Greetings

Maciek