Creating Solid Bends in Autodesk Fusion 360

autodesk fusion 360 does not have a bend command for bending solid bodies but sometimes would be very nice to be able to bend the solid body such as this bracket with the help of a few sheet metal tools we can do a nice job let's get started this is the same bracket before bending to get started we're going to do a sketch on the back side you could do it on either side but in this case it's going to be better on the back so i right click into a sketch i then want to use my project command and project geometry the whole outline into this sketch making sure it's projected link finish my sketch and go back to the home position next thing i want to do is go to sheet metal and pick up on flange i want to pick on that sheet metal i just did and notice it's going away from the part i don't want to add to the thickness so i want to switch switch sides to side two to go up into the part it is 16 gauge but whatever your sheet metal is set to is fine next thing we need to do is make another sketch on the sheet metal surface so i pick on the back side where the sheet mill is and i create a sketch i'm going to draw a couple lines that will be my bend lines i want to be sure they're parallel and horizontal they don't have to be if you want to bend in an angle but i want to do a straight one they're not straight so i'll put a constraint on each one next thing i'll do is the dimension between them it's going to be 12 inches between them and i'm going to be six inches off the center so i'll just pick up that dimension divide by two so i have fully constrained pin lines next step is to go back into a isometric view now at this point we can turn off the solid body and just deal with the sheet metal flange next thing i want to do is bend it so i'm going to go up to my sheet metal command and pick bend i'm going to bend it down so i'm going to pick on the bottom surface as a stationary then i'm going to pick this line and this line is my bend lines now since i'm using 16 gauge the bend is awful small so i'm going to make it 1.5 as an override to give me a nice curve you can change that to anything you like my sketch is still showing so i'm going to get rid of that the next thing i need to do is turn my body my solid body back on then i'll go up under sheet metal modify and pick unfold i want to unfold the sheet metal so i pick on that surface that's stationary and these two bins to put it in place you could do it automatically if you want with the check box say okay now we need to merge this piece of sheet metal into the solid body using a solid combine command the combine commands on a modify if you're looking for it the target body will be the sheet metal body so be sure you can pick it from the browser make sure that's number one the tool body will be the solid body you want to do a join say okay the next step is go back to sheet metal and do a refold as you can see we get our bends so everything is done just like the other model was look how quick that was for a bend feature one of the nice things about this method is that the sheet metal feature is completely embedded into the model so you don't have to do hiding of faces you also can go back to your timeline and change your radius your bins just by editing the bin feature and change that to anything you'd like is one inch you can also go back to the sketch before the bends and change the location so if i change this from 12 to 13 update and the bins move out very nice feature if you're going the wrong way with a bin you can change that very easily too go back to your bend edit it and in the chart pick flip to flip one or both of them going the other way and it will flip up when you're doing a round feature or a round body the process is basically the same except the location of the sheet metal flange so we'll start out by doing a new sketch on the plane going along the length of it i'm going to slice my view so i can see up inside very easily and draw me a line snap to the center on that end to the center on this end it's fully constrained finish your sketch and go to sheet metal and you want to make another flange you're going to pick on that line you would like it to be symmetrically centered as well as symmetrically across now the width of it is critical you must go enough to touch the interior surface that's just fine say okay the process now is pretty much the same i would turn the body off to make it easier to see my piece piece of sheet metal i'm going to do a sketch on this create a sketch i'm going to draw a line across it it's going to be slightly off-center i have to take into account the bend radius i'm going to measure off this in seven and three-quarters inches i'll then finish my sketch next thing i'm going to do is do my bend so i'll pick this as my stationary side and that'll be the bend side there i again need to override the bend radius because i'm using 16 gauge sheet metal i'm going to make it 1.5 say ok turn my body back on next thing i want to do is go to modify unfold pick the sheet metal stationary side and the bin side and drop it down i need to turn that sketch off i'm finished with it next thing i want to do just like the other one go to solid and pick combine again combining down in the modify menu pick on the sheet metal body first and the solid by a second and join them the next step is to go to sheet metal and re-fold unlike the previous model where we had the sheet metal flange marrying to the part is still visible in this part we must delete the faces so we want to pick under modify delete and i suggest you turn on face priority using the drop down menu it makes it easier so you want to pick on all the faces that are not joined that front edge is joined so don't pick on it i want to pick on that one that one i can see one down here right there turn around get the other end pick on this one and this one and one more you have to look through it look through the elbow hold down your mouse and pick the first face which is the curve part say okay and now your sheet metal bend is complete and the sheet metal flange is no longer visible i hope this improves your work with a workaround bin command in autodesk fusion 360.

Channel: John Hackney

Views: 3,185

Keywords: Autodesk Fusion 360, Bend Solid Bodies

Id: YQs3Ci9Pj-k

Length: 8min 47sec (527 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 22 2021