- [Instructor] There's no more impressive
or powerful tool in the sheet metal
tools library than the Miter Flange.
The Miter Flange can create very complicated
sheet metal shapes in a snap
and correct use of the feature
can really save you a lot of time.
More than likely this tool will help you to
create shapes that would otherwise be extremely difficult.
To get started we have to first
start with a base flange or tap.
So to get started, I'm gonna go ahead and choose sketch,
start a sketch on the top plane
and let's go ahead and then just draw a rectangle.
So there's my rectangle, let's add a couple dimensions,
five inches this way and let's go four inches that way.
Alright, then go back to Sheet Metal,
click on base Base Flange/Tab
and let's go ahead and type in a value here,
I'm gonna type in quarter inch, so make it kinda thick.
Click OK and there it is.
So the next step is to choose one of these flat surfaces.
So I'm gonna choose this one right here
and I'm gonna start a sketch on that flat surface
or the edge of the sheet metal.
Click on Sketch and I'm gonna ahead
and start a line right here.
So I'm gonna start my line,
go straight up and straight over.
So I click on space bar
and click normal to that so you can see I'm starting from
the very top corner of the sheet metal going up and over.
Now I can do a more complicated shape if I'd like to
but this is a good start.
So, now what I wanna do is go back to Sheet Metal
and click on Miter Flange.
It's gonna then use that sketch to create that flange.
Click on OK and there we have that
flange has been added to my sheet metal part.
We'll you're saying well maybe that's not that impressive.
I can probably easily do that with a
basic edge flange two times but in the Miter Flange,
I'm able to create both of those bends all in one tool.
But where the real power comes in from this tool
is doing multiple edges at the same exact time.
So let's go back and make that modification.
So go back over here to the Miter Flange tool,
click on edit feature,
now instead of just choosing that first edge,
let's go ahead and choose the second edge as well.
Now as you can see, it automatically miters both
this corner here and this corner over here
and puts it all together in a very nice fashion.
We also have the ability to change the flange position
just like we could in the edge flange by choosing
whether we want the material on the inside,
material on the outside
or the entire bend region on the outside,
couple different options there.
We can trim the side bends if we'd like to,
we can add a gap between the pieces of sheet metal
and we can even offset the start
and end condition for each one of these.
So in this case here, if I type in .5,
it's gonna bring that corner in by half of an inch.
Same thing over here, .5,
it's gonna bring that corner in by half of an inch.
So a whole bunch of different options
we can do with this tool
Click on OK and takes us back to that Sheet Metal feature.
Now if you wanna modify again,
of course go back begin over here
and edit that feature.
And this one I'm actually gonna back
and change the sketch that builds this miter flange.
Right now we only have it going up and over.
So if we wanna get to that,
we actually have to get out of this tool.
So instead of modifying the flange feature,
click on the twirl down, and choose that sketch.
So edit the sketch, which is just that line going up
and that line going over
and let's add a couple of other things.
So let's go ahead and just drag this up a little higher,
let's move it in a little bit
and let's go ahead and add a couple more lines,
so down and over.
So this might be a little bit hard to form,
but I wanna show you what you can do if you add a
couple complicated sketches to this Miter Flange
and just see how much SOLIDWORKS
can really do for you in the backend.
Click OK, it automatically creates
all those flanges as you can see here.
Very complicated to do if you
didn't use this Miter Flange tool.
Now, if you want to continue on this design
you can also use that mirror command.
So go over here to Features
and choose Mirror instead of creating all four corners,
let's just go ahead and choose that one quadrant,
or that one corner here
and then use a mirror plane.
So mirror it from here,
we use a body mirror,
we'll mirror the entire body over,
so there it is, one mirror.
And I can do it again,
say mirror here, that's okay,
I'm gonna choose this face here,
I'm gonna choose a body which is the entire body, click OK,
and that looks a little complicated
so maybe that will offset between each one of those.
Wasn't what we wanted, no problem,
let's go back to that Miter Flange right here, edit it,
and let's go ahead and remove,
we're just put zero for the starting
and ending offset and then it goes back to the way it was,
click OK and then you can see
you've got a very complicated part.
Now the only problem with this part is,
you're probably gonna have a really hard time
really creating this in the real world
because it's gonna be hard to get a tool inside
this whole to do all those complicated bends,
so I do wanna point out in the real world
you have to build around the constraints
of the tooling you have
and the machinery that's available.
This box here is probably outside of that region
because it's just so hard to get into those inside bends
but SOLIDWORKS is happy to build it for you.
So definitely keep in mind,
even though SOLIDWORKS can build it in sheet metal
it generally always can't be built in the real world,
so definitely think how will each one of those tools
get in and make those individual bends for this part.
So in this flat pattern condition,
most of these things are okay except when you try
and do that final bend,
it's gonna be a very short tool to try get in there
and you're probably gonna have a lot of issues.
So anyways, but that is the very,
very powerful tool of the Miter Flange tool
which allows you to a whole bunch of work
very quickly all inside of SOLIDWORKS,
just keep in mind though that it can build things
that you can't actual build in the real world.