SolidWorks 2007

One of the biggest enhancements is the addition of a Corner Trim tool to the Sheet Metal toolbar. The new Corner Trim tool gives you great control over bend relief in the notch area. You can easily adjust the bend relief in the corner of your parts by adding corner cuts in the relief area on the flattened part. The relief cut can be centered relative to the bend lines. If you have a laser machine, you can select the tangent to bend lines feature to size the cut exactly to the bend area. For punch press users, exact cut values may be entered to match your punching tool. Also, filleted corners can be added on the inside corners of the corner trim.

User have been begging for this next enhancement for a long time. Yes, it is true. You can add an edge flange on curved planar edges in SolidWorks 2007. What that means is that edge flanges are no longer restricted to linear edges! Single curved edges, multiple tangent edges, cylindrical edges, and lofted edges on parts can now be used easily to create an edge flange. This is a vital enhancement for all sheet metal guys. You are now able to place edge flanges on parts that you could not before. Although there are a few limitations, SolidWorks is definitely moving in the right direction.

How do you show the bend lines of a lofted transition, such as you would use in ductwork? There are no bend lines when you flatten a lofted bend because there aren't any, until now! SolidWorks 2007 now enables you to show bend lines for sheet metal lofted bends. The bend lines are calculated by default values or you can define your own to control the number of bend lines to be added. It's about time that now you are allowed to transform any sketch and its locating dimensions from a folded state to a flattened state and back again. If you create a sketch on the side of your part, the sketch remains attached to that face when folded or unfolded. How does that help? One example I can think of is etching. After your etching is sketched on either the flat pattern or the bent part, the etching will remain in the correct position in both the flat and the bent part.

Sheet metal lofted bends will now be flattened with bend lines showing in the bend regions. Sketches created on planar faces of any sheet metal part will be transformed when the part is flattened. These sketches can also be represented as a different color in the flat pattern drawing. Dimensions also go to their flatten state.

Remember, SolidWorks 2007 includes over 250 significant enhancements to help you design better products. To learn more about this fabulous new release, click here.
 

	SolidWorks 2007 enables users for the first time to save any file in Adobe Systems' new 3D PDF format.   Also, check out the new powerful SolidWorks Search, a Google-like full text search tool. Instantly and easily find any of your previously created SolidWorks files. Search by file name, metadata, and even drawing notes.