- [Instructor] The tab command extends an existing
sheet metal part, and you can see here I have part 2.3
already opened up,
and if you don't have it already opened up,
you can easily create the sheet metal shape.
Now what we want to do is we want to choose any one
of the available faces to create a tab on.
So I can choose this face here, this one here,
this one here.
It doesn't really matter.
Spin it around, and I can hold down my middle mouse button
to spin this part, and of course I can just choose
any one of these faces here that I want to start with.
In this case here I'm gonna go ahead and choose
that top surface there, and go ahead and click on Sketch.
So now that I have a sketch, I'm gonna go ahead
and hit the space bar on my keyboard to spin that around
normal to it or you can choose the view cube normal tool.
Either way.
And let's go ahead up to the line command.
So I'm gonna choose this corner over here,
and drag out a couple lines in whatever shape I'd like.
I'm just looking to create one enclosed boundary.
All right, come on down here.
And at this point in time a lot of people think
that this shape is done, but it's not.
It has to be and enclosed boundary,
so you have to connect this point here over here
to this point here, so go back up to the line command
and then go ahead and just connect the dots together,
so now you can see we have one enclosed shape.
If I spin that around in 3D
holding that middle mouse button down,
you can see a preview of what's gonna happen,
and of course in 3D you can move these flanges around
if you need to just to adjust it so that we have something.
We have to make sure that we don't go past this point here.
It has to be on that flange.
That's important because you don't want to interfere
with that bend region there.
So once you have a flange created,
of course it's good practice to add dimensions
and things like that, but in this case
we're just showing you how to use the tool,
so go ahead up to sheet metal, click on that same
base flange tab tool.
Now because we already have an existing sheet metal part,
and we're adding on to it,
this becomes what's called a tab.
Click on that and it's already using the same parameters
from our base sheet metal part,
so we don't really have as many options here.
It's already a certain thickness and material,
and it's gonna be merging those things together,
so click on OK and there is our tab,
and this becomes the same sheet metal part.
Now of course we could continue doing the same thing
by choosing a different sheet metal face.
Choose this one over here, start a sketch on that face,
and of course we're gonna start on that same line tool
or any other tool you want.
Let's go ahead and work in 3D a little bit here.
It's a little bit harder to see what's going on,
but you have the ability to do that.
Go ahead and tie that back in over here,
or if you want to, click on normal too.
Of course we need to close that shape off.
So notice here, I'm not going past that bend region here,
and over here if you do want to past the bend region,
you have to make a little cut out so you can come in here
a little bit, but you want to add generally at least
one material thickness between the two flanges here,
so I have space to make the bend,
and notice over here, I can drag this along here
and I can actually snap to the bend region here,
but I don't want to go past it,
it will cause errors for the bend region.
So then I can snap right there that corner,
and then you can define the shape you want.
You can also add in holes to this tab
while you're creating it, so over here
I'm gonna grab the circle command and go ahead
and drag out a circle here, maybe grab
the rectangle command and drag out a rectangle over here,
and that's just fine.
As long as you have one enclosed outside boundary
and fully enclosed interior boundaries,
you should be all set.
Then just head over to sheet metal,
click on base flange tab and we've created another tab.
So there it is.
Now notice we have a couple little things
that might be issues.
Now right over here, you can see this circle here
is pretty close to this corner here,
and that might be causing an issue,
so make sure you do double check that you're not
too close or you don't have too tight of a bend region,
something's gonna cause an error.
So let's go back and let's actually cause a couple errors
and see what happens.
So go over here back to that sketch.
I'm gonna edit the sketch.
Let's try, instead of snapping to that corner here,
let's go ahead and delete that, all right?
And let's drag that past there and see what happens.
All right.
So it actually does work,
but notice it does make it almost like touching,
so you, you're basically tearing the material.
In real life, that's probably not gonna work,
'cause you can't really tear that sheet metal.
Solidworks was able to figure it out
and create a tear there, but most of the time
you do need to have a little bend relief here,
so that's generally a bad thing to do,
so let's go back and fix that.
So we don't wanna do that, even though Solidworks
does allow us to do that and click on OK,
so now we have a little bit better bend region here,
and same thing with the circle over here,
you probably want to move that a little further away
from this edge here 'cause you don't want
to be too close 'cause that could also cause some issues,
so just keep that in mind when you're creating tabs
inside of your sheet metal package,
but as you can see whether you're starting
from a base feature or a flange feature,
adding a tab is very straightforward,
all you need is one enclosed boundary
or interior enclosed boundaries inside of that.
Go ahead and just create that sketch of the shape you'd like
using the base flange tab tool.
Click on that feature and automatically it'll create
the tab for you inside a Solidworks sheet metal.