Folding sheet help

[Mongrel_Shark]

I have a friend that is trying to make something with a folded sheet design. They have made .dxf files and had them bent and exported as .stl's but there are some bending errors.

Mainly looking for a way to edit some of the bend values, or re fold the dfx file with corrected values.
I have asked for permission to upload files and more details about the project, just waiting for a reply.
In the mean time lets say I wanted to fold up a complex vaugely pyramid shaped structure. There would be more side to the base than the top and lots of trapezoids and triangles etc.

Have attached an example of one method I have tried which didn't work but possibly could with a few more sketches added. I basically made some profiles for top and bottom of panel and did a loft. Problem is it put curves in the panels to keep them squares when I need triangles etc. I think I could work around this with more layers of sketches, but would be very time consuming and possibly not very easy to change an angle later.

loft attempt.fcstd

(8.99 KiB) Downloaded 40 times

This did get me thinking about sheet folding in general. Did a lot of googling and found a few versions of a sheet folding workbench has been attempted.

Looks like a long abandoned attempt back in 2011-2012

I also found a more recent sheet metal bench here http://theseger.com/projects/2015/06/sh ... r-freecad/
Had a quick go and found it ok for simple square based folding, but not so good for what I am trying to do.



Since there are already dfx templates of the flat sheet. some way of bending the existing sheet would be ideal.

[Kunda1]

Please always post your full FreeCAD version (Help > About FreeCAD > Copy to clipboard)

[Mark Szlazak]

Origami software!

[Mongrel_Shark]

Sorry forgot to add version details.
OS: Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.16.6710 (Git)
Build type: None
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-16
Hash: f8eca0f9311f07c125dd6742a607724c1fa0b77c
Python version: 2.7.6
Qt version: 4.8.6
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 6.8.0.oce-0.17


Re origami software. I am interested. Anyone got any open source suggestions that work on Linux and can import the dfx files then export an stl for 3d printing?

[easyw-fc]

Re origami software. I am interested. Anyone got any open source suggestions that work on Linux and can import the dfx files then export an stl for 3d printing?

http://freecadbuch.de/doku.php?id=blog: ... _erstellen

for sheet metal you can just install the official workbench
https://github.com/shaise/FreeCAD_SheetMetal

[mrdic]

The commercial sheet metal apps that I've seen wouldn't deal with your loft attempt object because they're predicated on cylindrical surface sections with edges parallel to the axis, planar faces with constant angular relationships along the connecting edge because that's the manufacturing process. I've never seen a dedicated sheet metal app that export .stls either, because that would destroy the cylindrical features, breaking any further bend editing.

[Mongrel_Shark]

Hi Guys. Sorry about the delayed reply. Been flat out.

I'm still looking for a solution to this problem.

AsI explained in the original post.I have the sheet metal workbench. Its absolutely hopeless as it only folds squares and rectangles.....

eg how would I make a series of pyramids, with3, 4 and 5 sides using this workbench?