Flattening a surface

[SLFY]

I am doing some model work for a sheet metal manufacturer. The design is for a vent hood, which is made of 3 curved surfaces (and one flat) rather than the more common angled surfaces. He is hoping I can generate the 2D shapes, that need to be cut and rolled to create the vent hood, from the CAD model. This seems like something that should be possible, though I haven't been able to determine how to set constraints and "un-roll" a surface of the model.

Can anyone help?

[islandmon]

Rolling implies a linear process such as conic radials. Unrolling then would require conic flattening. Is this what you require? Please post an image of the shape...

[SLFY]

Sorry for the delay -

Here is one of the vent hoods. I am only concerned with the exterior shape.

Thanks for any help.

Sean

[propstuff]

VW cannot do developments of solids.

You would have to do it the old fashioned way, or, try TouchCad

www.touchcad.com

[SLFY]

Thanks for the info. It appears TouchCAD will import and export well with VW?

[islandmon]

Just to prove the point that VW is capable of handling this job:

[propstuff]

A couple of points to note though, islandmon;

Your sheet pattern is not the correct development of that shape,and;

the development was done in VW, but not by VW. Yes?

Or did you write a script?

cheers,

N.

Edited September 12, 2007 by propstuff

[islandmon]

Oh well, gave it a quick 30 minute try using Revolve with Rail and cut sections ; )

[ludesign]

Thanks for the info. It appears TouchCAD will import and export well with VW?

I'm the developer of TouchCAD and have used VW for 20 years now, so they work well together. For the most part I personally prefer doing especially free form shaping in TouchCAD, so for me it's mostly modeling in TouchCAD and generating final drawings in VectorWorks. Exporting to VW can either be done using DXF of VectorScript. VectorScript has the advantage of being able to maintain shapes as NURBS surfaces or solid NURBS surfaces.

Claes Lundstrom