In this post will be concentrating on some sheet metal and gauge table rules. When working with sheet metal tables it is important to understand their working rules.
Bend radii column values must be the same.
Although the bend table (Fig. 1) appears to be a multiple bend table, in reality it is only a single table for various thicknesses.
This means that the bend radii column must be the same from table to table.
This rule only applies to bend tables. It does not apply to gauge tables.
Material thickness must increase in descending order.
Another rule that frequently creates problems for users is the material thickness increment direction.
The material thickness must increase from the top to the bottom of the table (Fig. 2.)
A source for this confusion is that, as the material thickness increases, the gauge number decreases. At times users arrange the gauge values in the ascending order.
Bend Radii must increase from left to right.. (Fig. 3.)
Use equal material thickness but with modifications.
Some users may want to set one bend table for multiple materials. The problem appears when those materials that have the same thicknesses also have different bend allowance parameters.
This means the user must create a table using two equal thicknesses. Technically, this is not possible.
Fortunately, there is a workaround. The trick is to use two different(however close) thickness values (Fig. 4). The first number must be the exact thickness value. The second number should be slightly larger (an additional 0.0000001 inch in the example below).
Bend Radii label must exist in every column for every bend table
(Fig. 5) shows another typical problem affecting bend tables. As mentioned above (Fig. 1), not only the bend radii columns must have the same value, but every column of every table must have its bend radius label.
If the label is missing (as in the image below), the system will display the shown warning message.
(Fig.6), shows that users cannot leave a blank column in gauge tables. The reason why is that the system uses those bend radii labels in the user interface.
When the system sees a break (missing label) it stops the display. Notice in (Fig. 7), that the 0.09in bend radius label is not displayed in the user interface.
Next month we will explore part II of the bend and gauge table rules.
Originally posted by Mario Iocco, in the SOLIDWORKS Tech Blog.
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