I am trying to ascertain a "best practice" for our sheet metal parts. Many of our parts are outsourced to one of our sister companies. When modeled, we create flat sheet and bent layouts using the standard bend radii. However, our manufacturer often changes machines in which the physical parts are created and these different machines use different bend radii in their processes. Is there anyone out there in the forums who have had this type of issue and how did you address it?
So far, my only thought is to create configurations based on different known bend radii. In the past, the company has resorted to sending only flat sheet patterns and letting the engineers in the metal shop figure out the details. We are currently migrsating form Pro-E WF3 to SW2012 so if there is an "easier" way to accomplish this, now is the best time to deal with it.
SolidworksSheet Metal