Sheet metal parts are common across a wide range of industries from special machines,
housings, and other critical product components. It is a well-known fact that SOLIDWORKS allows
you to quickly and cost-effectively create sheet metal part designs using a simple design
process, saving you time and development costs. In order to make it more efficient few great
enhancements have been made to the Sheet Metal design in SOLIDWORKS 2017.
Normal Cut Feature
When a hole is punched on curved faces of a Sheetmetal part using normal cut feature, the
flattened state of it will produce an odd geometry in SOLIDWORKS 2016. This has been
enhanced in SOLIDWORKS 2017 . Now in SOLIDWORKS 2017 a new option is available to
“Optimize the geometry” of the cut to remove any unwanted material. Upon further inspection,
we can clearly see that after using this option we are able to achieve the right result. This new
option will be turned on by default for all newly created Normal Cuts, but the user has the
option to manually turn it off.
Three bend corner relief
We have always had the ability to add corner relief where 2 sheet metal bends come togetherin previous versions of SOLIDWORKS, but now in SOLIDWORKS 2017 you can create 3 bend
corner reliefs.. Now when working with the corner relief the property manager has been
enhanced to include 3 corner relief, all we have to do is just select the option in the Corner
Relief property manager, collect the appropriate corners and choose from the various relief
options for Rectangular, Circular, Tear, Obround, or Full Round.
This enhancement has to been made to drawing as well, similar to the 2 bend corner relief, the
material is removed where appropriate in both the bent and flattened state and you can clearly
see the various relief types that can be created to enable you to create more accurate designs.
These great new options add up to increased sheet metal performance in SOLIDWORKS 2017
that will enable you to do more than ever before.