I am designing a sheet metal product. Normally, I always use SolidWorks for this kind of work, but I wanted to try completing this project entirely in Rhino 8. If I can learn the best practices and “tricks” for these workflows in Rhino, I’d like to finish the design here.
I have a large number of randomly placed connection holes on the sheet metal. I have two specific questions:
Is there a way to assign a 4mm hole to multiple points simultaneously with a single command? I’ve tried the RoundHole command and I really liked how easy it is to move or delete the holes afterward, but do I have to select every point one by one, or is there a “sketch-driven pattern” equivalent?
How can I unroll/flatten this 1.5mm thick 3D modeled sheet metal in Rhino? In SolidWorks, I simply use the “Flatten” tool. Is there a reliable way to do this in Rhino to get a proper flat pattern for production, or should I export the data back to SolidWorks for the unrolling process?
I am attaching the images and the data for reference. Thank you in advance for your help!
This is fairly doable by a script either grasshopper, grasshopper player or Python. Is this a tool that you’re gonna provide to others or just use yourself?
Japhy linked a big discussion about sheetmetal parts… this isn’t really the best kind of thing to just do in Rhino for fun? There are workflows but Rhino doesn’t have “Sheetmetal Features,” full stop.
Of course you don’t really need to unroll you model to get it made, just send 3D and the shop will rebuild it in SolidWorks or SolidEdge or whatever they use, everything about steel fabrication starting with the 3D model is a “black art” that you simply leave to the experts.
I have learned that black art for the materials I work with and it has earned me not only street cred with the shops I have dealt with but repeatable outcomes for parts designed. Dont leave it up to others to work out the details, be able to define the parts as bent and flat patterns as cnc cut to exacting tolerances.
I miss the sheet metal tools in solidworks since going with Rhino as a sole cad solution. They were not perfect, but very fast and needed only minor tweaking to flat patterns. I hope somebody sees that as an opportunity to develop something that keep people using Rhino for sheet metal instead of giving it up for others with Solidworks, etc.
I’m working on this design by myself. Once finished, I’ll be unrolling it and sending the data to the sheet metal workshop for laser cutting and bending as usual. By the way, I only know Rhino; I’m not familiar with Grasshopper yet. : )
The most efficient way of doing things is to model the part in whatever 3D software at hand, and then let the sheet metal fabricator do the rest - they know the behaviour of the metals they process, the behaviour of their machines, etc.
Otherwise, instead of laboriously botching things together, I’d use Creo’s or Fusion’s sheet metal workspaces.
I mean, sure, whatever, cool story bro, but they’re the experts and should be leant on as much as possible, that’s what you’re paying them for, and there’s the matter of having a clear division of responsibility when $20K of bending turns out the wrong size.
