Sheet 12 of 15

Convert to Sheet Metal: Turn a Box Into a Tray

Q: In Convert to Sheet Metal, what is the Fixed Face?

The face that stays put; the sheet grows from it across the bend edges. The flat faces reached from the Fixed Face across the Bend Edges become the sheet.

Q: You convert a solid (not shelled) box. Where does the sheet's thickness come from?

From the rule, taken inward from the faces. The solid's faces become the outside of the sheet, and the rule's thickness goes into the body.

Q: After converting, the flat pattern shows only 3 bends instead of 4. Why?

One Bend Edge was not picked, so that wall was left out. Only the faces reached across picked edges become sheet. Edit the feature and pick the missing edge.

In 5 minutes you'll turn a shelled box into a sheet metal tray, and a plain solid box into a cover, each with a flat pattern ready to cut.

Part: Convert to Sheet Metal
Rule: Steel 2mm
Sheet: t 2 · R 2 · K 0.4
Time: 5 min
Status: Open

OP 10Watch
OP 20Turn the part
OP 30Build
OP 40Inspect
OP 50Quiz

OP 10Watch

Video in productionBuild along with the steps in OP 30 meanwhile.

OP 20Turn the part

Drag to turn, scroll or pinch to zoom. Flat shows the blank before it is bent: the same sheet, the same frame.

OP 30Build it in SolidCraft

Your task

Turn a box into sheet metal, twice. First the tray in the drawing above:

The rule from the drawing's notes. A Box of the drawing's outside size at the origin, then Shell it: top face removed, thickness 2 mm.
New this time: Convert to Sheet Metal: Fixed Face the floor, Bend Edges the four edges where the floor meets the walls.
Flat Pattern: read the Flat size and the Bends. Give the body Tray the Physical Material Steel and read its Mass in Properties.
Now a cover: in a new design, the rule again (a new design has its own rules) and the same Box with no Shell. Convert to Sheet Metal with Fixed Face the top face and Bend Edges its four top edges, then read the Flat size's long side.

What to write down

Boxes 1 and 2: The tray's flat size: both numbers of the Flat size row.
Box 3: The tray's number of bends (the Bends row).
Box 4: The tray's mass in Steel, in grams (type the number only).
Box 5: The cover's flat size, long side.

Type them below and press Check. The solution's bend table may say "down" for one part and "up" for the other: that only depends on which side of the sheet you picked the Fixed Face on.

OP 40Inspect

Enter what SolidCraft shows you. Each value is checked against SolidCraft's own result, within the tolerance shown. Nothing you type leaves this page.

Box 1Tray: flat size, long side ± 0.05 mm mm

Box 2Tray: flat size, short side ± 0.05 mm mm

Box 3Tray: number of bends exact

Box 4Tray: mass ± 0.5 g g

Box 5Cover from the solid box: flat size, long side ± 0.05 mm mm

Stuck? Compare with the finished part

Download the finished part

Open it in SolidCraft (File › Open) next to yours and compare the timeline, the rule and each feature's sizes: the first one that differs is where yours went wrong.

exercise · Steel 2mm · t 2 · R 2 · K 0.4 · all dimensions in mm, from the blank's left and bottom edges

Flat blank 172.797 × 132.797 mm · 4 bends

Bend	Angle	Dir.	R mm	Length mm	Allowance mm
1	90°	down	2	112	4.398
2	90°	down	2	72	4.398
3	90°	down	2	112	4.398
4	90°	down	2	72	4.398

exercise-solid · Steel 2mm · t 2 · R 2 · K 0.4 · all dimensions in mm, from the blank's left and bottom edges

Flat blank 172.797 × 132.797 mm · 4 bends

Bend	Angle	Dir.	R mm	Length mm	Allowance mm
1	90°	up	2	112	4.398
2	90°	up	2	72	4.398
3	90°	up	2	112	4.398
4	90°	up	2	72	4.398

OP 50Quiz

Q1In Convert to Sheet Metal, what is the Fixed Face?

Q2You convert a solid (not shelled) box. Where does the sheet's thickness come from?

Q3After converting, the flat pattern shows only 3 bends instead of 4. Why?