SpaceClaim Online Help

Sheet metal rectangles

The Sheet Metal Rectangle tool is most often used to draw the base of a sheet metal part. After you sketch a base, you can use the Pull tool to create walls perpendicular to the rectangle.

Rectangles, circles, polygons, and ellipses are automatically extruded to the thickness of a sheet metal wall as you sketch. You can change the default wall thickness in the sheet metal properties.

In addition, you can choose the ProfileLineA straight line, arc, or spline drawn in Sketch mode or on a layout plane. Lines have length but no area. When you pull a sketch into 3D with the PullTool used to distort or deform geometry. Use the Pull tool to offset, extrude, revolve, sweep, draft, and blend faces; or to round, chamfer, or extrude edges. When converting a sketch to 3D, pulling a line creates a surface and pulling a surface creates a solid. tool, lines become edges. in space; outline of an object; used to describe objects when sweeping or blending. option to create a wall that is perpendicular to the sketch plane as you sketch.

To sketch a rectangle in sheet metal

1. Click on the Sheet Metal tab.

2. Click Rectangle in the Sketch group or press R.

3. (Optional) Select Define rectangle from center in the Options panelArea of the user interface that enables you to modify functions specific to tools. to start drawing the rectangle by clicking the point for its center instead of a corner.

4. (Optional) Click the Profile option if you want to create walls as you sketch.

5. Click to set the first corner.

   MoveA tool used to translate or rotate geometry. your mouse over the sketch grid to preview the rectangle. Dashed lines appear when you create a square or golden rectangle.

   You can dimension the points relative to other sketch objects.

6. Click to set the opposite corner of the rectangle.

Options

The following options are available in the Options panel:

• Define rectangle from center: Select this option to sketch rectangles from their centers. Click to define the center of the rectangle, then click again to set the length of the sides. You can also drag to draw the rectangle. Hold the Alt key while drawing a rectangle to toggle this option on-the-fly.

The following Sheet Metal sketch options allow you to choose between sketching a flat wall or a wall that is perpendicular to the sketch plane:

The following options are available for every sketch tool:

• Cartesian dimensions: Select a point in a sketch and then click this option to see Cartesian dimensions from the point. Cartesian dimensions show you the X and Y distances from the point you select. If you don't have a point selected, it shows you the X and Y distances from the origin.

• Polar dimensions: Select a point in a sketch and then click this option to see Polar dimensions from the point. Polar dimensions show you an angle and a distance from the point you select. If you don't have a point selected, it shows you the angle and distance from the origin.

• SnapConstrain to objects, angular and linear increments, or grid points while you are sketching or editing solids. You can customize the snapping behavior in File>Options. Pressing Shift while dragging snaps the tool based on your snap settings. You can use the Snap to grid tool to constrain or lock all drawing to grid points only. to grid: Select this option turn snapping on or off while sketching. The cursor will snap to the minor grid spacing increment while you sketch. The defaults are 1mm for Metric and 0.125in for Imperial units. See Units options to change the minor grid spacing.

• Snap to angle: Select this option to turn angle snapping on or off while sketching. The cursor will snap to the angular snap increment while you sketch. The default is 15 degrees. See Snap options to change the angular increment used for snapping.

• Create layout curves: The sketch curves are created as layout curves. If you move the design to a drawing sheet, with Sketch modeModeThree ways of designing: Sketch, Cross-section, or 3D. You can switch between modes at any time. for drawing in two dimensions using the sketching tools on the sketch grid. A sketch is a collection of lines and other 2D objects on a sketch grid. Sketching creates regions that can be pulled into 3D. When you pull your sketch into 3D with the Pull tool, regions formed by intersecting lines will become solids and lines will become edges. selected you must select the Create layout curves checkbox again in the Sketch Options group of the Options panel in order to create layout curves on the drawing sheet. See Layout Curves.

• CurveIn 3D, any line in space. Fitter Options: If the Sketch plane passes through a Mesh objectObjectAnything recognizable by the tools. 3D objects include vertices, edges, faces, surfaces, solids, layouts, planes, axes, and origins. 2D objects include points and lines. created by importing an STL fileFile format native to the stereo lithography CAD software created by 3D Systems. You can export parts and assemblies (.stl).See Stereo lithography. lightweight (facets only). Mesh objects have the ability to snap to the facets., the system will fit curves through the facet points. Lines are displayed green and arcs are displayed blue. The following options apply to the system-generated curves.

  • Fit curves - Uncheck this option if you do not want the system to fit curves through the points.

  • Tolerance - Determines how many points will be found, which also determines how many curves will be created. The smaller the tolerance, the more points will be found and the curves will be generated.

  • Auto-merge - When checked On, the system will merge lines and arcs to form splines. Splines are displayed pink.