Flattening a Surface

[Wallybanger]

Ok, I have made some progress with my airplane model but now I'm thinking about remodeling the fuselage again so that it's easier to modify and draw.

The way this fuselage is to be built involves laying the sides out flat and gluing all of the pieces together. Then, the sides are curved as you glue the cross members in between the two sides. I have created surfaces, projected between 2 curves and used those surfaces to create ribs with sides tangent to the surface.

Here's what I'm thinking....

I would like to have surfaces, created from points or curves that I can modify. I will then lay out my ribs on those surfaces (so the ribs will be driven by the surfaces). I would then like to be able to FLATTEN those surfaces, which would bend back the ribs, to simulate a flat pattern that can then be used to built the actual plane! Is this possible to do? How would a guy flatten a surface?

I know about the "flattening" in R16 under composites and the Unfold in R17 but I would like to use R16 so I don't have to install r17 on a different computer. I played a bit with the flattening in R16 and don't really understand how it works.

Any advice?

Thanks

 

[MrCATIA]

Mike,

Recalling the pictures you posted earlier, I think all the sections were rectangular (with straight sides), so your fuselage surfaces should be ruled and easily flattened with the Unfold tool in R16.

 

[Wallybanger]

Mike,

Recalling the pictures you posted earlier, I think all the sections were rectangular (with straight sides), so your fuselage surfaces should be ruled and easily flattened with the Unfold tool in R16.

Oh no sir! definitely not rectangular!

So there is an unfold tool in R16? Which workbench is it in? How would I use it? Would it work to drive my ribs?

 

[Wallybanger]

OK, Apparently there is an unfold feature in V5R16. If you have the DL1 license for Generative Shape Design you will get an icon that looks just like the unfold icon in Sheet metal.

It's pretty easy to use and you can transfer things like points and lines with the surface. It doesn't unfold the surface so much as it makes a flat copy of the first but it should still prove useful. Unfortunately, you can't use this feature to drive solid models so I'm still looking for a way to do that. Ideas welcome

 

[MrCATIA]

.... you can't use this feature to drive solid models so I'm still looking for a way to do that. Ideas welcome

Good to hear you found the Unfold tool in R16!

You can use the Unfold feature just like a surface to make a flat solid, either using the ThickSurface tool or Pad in the Part Design workbench. But I'm not sure why you want to do this, when you can use the Unfold feature directly as a pattern for the fuselage.

 

[Wallybanger]

Good to hear you found the Unfold tool in R16!

You can use the Unfold feature just like a surface to make a flat solid, either using the ThickSurface tool or Pad in the Part Design workbench. But I'm not sure why you want to do this, when you can use the Unfold feature directly as a pattern for the fuselage.

Yeah, I did a drawing up last night using the flat surface as a template. I'm sure that being able to drive things with an unfoldable surface will be useful in the future. It would have saved me time in this case.