Creating a Custom Forming Tool

Forming Tools act as Dies that bend, stretch, or otherwise deform sheet metal. The face to which you apply the forming tool corresponds to the stopping surface of the tool itself. By default, the tool travels inward towards the face.

When you create a forming tool:

The locating sketch is added to position the forming tool on the sheet metal part. The colors are applied to distinguish the Stopping Face from the Faces to Remove.

Consider how the minimum radius of curvature (MRC) correlates with the forming tool. The MRC in a forming tool is a good measure of the maximum thickness for a sheet metal part. Beyond this limit, the results are not guaranteed to work. You can verify the MRC in Tools > Evaluate > Check.

In the Check Entity dialog box, under Check for, select Minimum radius of curvature, and click Check.

Creating a Custom Forming Tool:

Forming Tool is saved to a “sldftp” file type. Selections are made to determine the Stopping face and optionally Face(s) to Remove.

Steps To Create a Forming Tool:

A. Geometry Creation:

1. Create a New part that represents the shape of the form you wish to make.; Here we have created a part with basic features: Extruded Boss/Base and Fillet features.

Note: Multi-body parts are not supported for sheet metal forming tools.

2. Here we need a hole; With the help of a split line, the sketch divides the selected face into separate faces.

Once you have finished creating a single-bodied part, select the Forming Tool option from the Sheet Metal toolbar. It can also be accessed from

Insert →Sheet Metal →Forming Tool

B. Forming Tool Feature:

3. The first selection is the Stopping Face (blue planar face). Any faces in front of the stopping face will create the "form" in the sheet metal part.

4. You can also choose Faces to Remove (pink planar face). The selected faces here will leave holes in the sheet metal part when the form tool is applied.

Note:

Stopping Face: Sets the face to define where the forming tool stops when it is applied to the target part. It defines how deep the tool is pushed into the part.

Faces to Remove: Sets the face or faces to remove from the target part. When you place the forming tool on the target part, the faces that you select for Faces to Remove are deleted from the part. If you do not want to remove any faces, do not select any faces for Faces to Remove.

At this point, the form tool has been successfully created. But how do we apply it to parts? Our next step is to add it to our Design Library for easy access while designing in sheet metal parts.

C. Adding Tool to Design Library

The design library is an area to store commonly used features, blocks, etc.

5. To add the forming tool, right-click on your part at the top level in the Feature Manager design tree and select Add to Library.

6. The Add to Library will appear on the Property Manager, and you can able to choose the folder you want to place it in. It is important to put it inside the Forming Tools folder for it to function correctly.

D. Using the Forming Tool from the Design Library

7. Drag and drop the created forming tool from the Design Library; Position the tool according to the requirement (In the Type Tab, you can able to align the tool, rotation angle, select configurations, etc.; In the Position Tab, you can able to constrain the position of the tool for your requirement. Once the forming tool is applied, the intended forming process will take place resulting in the desired output.

8. Results...

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