#Solidworks tube bending how to

Bending only a portion of the Bar Stock вЂ“ Now that you have the Triad properly located, you have one task left and that is to relocate one of the Trim Planes to the bend position (Triad.) This is done by clicking the вЂњTrim Plane 1вЂќ selection box in the Property Manager and then clicking the center of the sketch arc or the bend line.

Alternatively you can use the FlexвЂ™s Property Manager to specify the origin for the triad as well as incrementally move or rotate the triad by values.ДЇigure 4 вЂ“ repositioning triad to sketch circle center Do this by RMB (Right mouse Button) on the center ball of the Triad and then choosing вЂњMove to selection.вЂќ Now immediately click on the top point of the sketch arc where (where bend starts tangent to bottom of Bar Stock) See figure 4. Repositioning the Bend вЂ“ Now your task is to relocate the Triad so that it placed at the center of the sketch circle.By default the Triad is placed at the CG of the body, defaulted to вЂњBendingвЂќ with the axis of bend on the X and the trim planes at the extremities of the bodyвЂ™s bounding box on the Z axis. Initiating Flex вЂ“ Now exist the sketch and go to Insert>Feature>Flex and pick the Bar Stock Body.

This, of course, is optional and not necessarily a pre-requirement of the Flex feature, but only if you want to be deterministic about specifying your bend.ДЇigure 2 вЂ“ specifying bend line and radius of bend Here IвЂ™m specifying that the bend occur 4 inches from the end and the bend radius is 1 inch. You may even go as far as creating a single 3D sketch which defines the bend line on the Bar Stock but also the center of bend (radius of bend.) see figure 2. Create a sketch on the Bar stock, where you want the bend to occur.

Creating Bend Reference вЂ“ You may want to start by creating some simple bend references.

HereвЂ™s how you use Flex to, for example, only bend a certain portion of this part stock: Especially for surfacing, this can be quite a powerful tool for вЂњwarpingвЂќ surfaces thru successive Flex features (see figure 1.)ДЇigure 1 вЂ“ using successive Flex on surface bodyДetermining the neutral position for Flex вЂ“ One of the first questions that come up often about this tool is this вЂњwhat if I just want to bend only a certain portion of the body вЂ“ how do I do that?вЂќ Because, by default, when a body is selected for flexing, it positions the Triad (neutral position) at the center of the part (center of solid bodyвЂ™s bounding box.) Fortunately we donвЂ™t have to settle for just bending the entire part.

#Solidworks tube bending how to

The feature is gratifying because it gives the user a nice, dynamic preview and after using it a few times, it becomes very understandable how to use it.ДЇlex works for both Surface and Solid bodies. The key to using Flex effectively is to understand the placement of the Triad in relationship to the 1 st and 2 nd trim plane. The Flex feature in SolidWorks can sometimes be a quite useful modeling tool when other tools cannot achieve what you require.