More Corner Detail

By MLombard

There were some comments at the end of the last article, and I started to answer them in the comments, but the response quickly became too big to handle as just a comment, so I’m making a mini-article out of it.

Here’s what Dan’s talking about. I should have been more complete talking about this.

First, here’s the CommandBar for the Close 2-Bend Corner tool. Remember that Dan’s showing the default CommandBar, and I’m using the CommandBar set up by the SolidWorks user persona, which makes it look more like the PropertyManager in Works and adds some explanatory text to it. I’m not hung up on making Edge look like Works, but I do find the text very helpful. The default CommandManager is incredibly efficient from a space usage point of view, and for users who are familiar with all of the icons, that’s really the best way to go.

Anyway, back to sheet metal. As Dan pointed out, I only showed one option, the Open option. But there are others.

Some of these do look alike, at the settings I chose. I used a gap of 0 and a diameter of 0.1” on a thickness of 0.062”.

And then the comment by lking pointed out that there is also an option for overlapping one side or another, which I have shown to the right. You can Flip sides in the CommandBar as lking mentioned. The Overlap ratio runs from 0 (no overlap) to 1 (overlap the complete thickness).

So if this doesn’t cover what you’re looking for, I’m not sure what will. This is the biggest selection of sheet metal corner treatments I’ve seen in the mid-range packages.

You can make these settings on any sheet metal part with a corner, and the interface for all the options is pretty easy to figure out.

If you are interested in showing your CommandBar vertical like I have it instead of the condensed CommandBar which is horizontal and doesn’t have text labels, go to Application Menu>Solid Edge Options>Helpers>Command User Interface>Use vertical docking window form.

This will be set automatically if you choose the “Some Assistance” theme, as shown below from the Quick Access toolbar>Themes