Hi 'Sheet Metal Professionals',

Recently I was involved in an interesting discussion.  We had been talking about sheet metal components, which states (like bended and flattened; and obviously some more) are important and how those different states should be handled.  As you can imagine there had been different opinions and now I am really curious about your opinion on this.

So, I have some questions for you and I am hoping to get your feedback:

I am wondering how you handle the different states of sheet metal.  I.e. a sheet metal component has at least two specific states:  The folded part and the flattened part as well.

But do you have any other states that are important for you?  I.e. do you have a ‘post-bended’ state (that shows the part in a manufactured state; additional holes that are added after the bend operation, milled areas that are applied after the part has been bended)?  Any other states that you have to be cover with SolidWorks (minimum blank size as a physical state? Or something else that is important to you?)

How and when do you decide which feature has to go into which state?

How do you handle those states in conjunction with PDM?  Do you have different identity numbers or are all states the same item?

It would be great if you could share your best practice with me and let me know how you handle sheet metal components.  In addition, I would really appreciate if you have some nice models that show / explain your practice.

Thank you in advance for your feedback.

Kind Regards

Frank

Product Definition Team