Nested Dimple – A Workaround

This article discusses a Solid Edge workflow to create stepped deep drawn sheetmetal parts that are typically created with a double-acting press.

Normally the Dimple command is used for the task.
Lets see how to overcome hurdles in creating a part as shown in this figure.



Here the green surface is the original tab. The orange surface is produced by the first pass and can be achieved easily using the Dimple command. The tricky part is the surface painted blue.

For the first pass, create a rectangular tab of any size.
Start the Dimple  command from the Sheet Metal group. Create a sketch as shown in figure.



For the second pass, start the Dimple command again and sketch on the top surface as shown.



After closing the sketch, indicate the side and click to specify the extent. You will be greeted with a message indicating feature failure since the profile may be too close to an edge and unable to recompute topology.



A remedy to this situation lies in something which perhaps is not a standard practice but may be looked upon as a workaround adopted by those in the trenches, to get their work done.
There could always be more elegant ways to do this in Solid Edge.

Select the first Dimple feature and then Edit Definition. Click the Options button on the Command bar. In the Dimple Options dialog, clear the Include rounding check box.

Also clear the Include punch-side corner radius check box. Finally, click OK and then Finish.



Try creating the second Dimple feature again.
This time the second pass should form without problems.



From the Application menu, select Switch To – Part and click Yes in the warning message.
In the Part environment, round off the edges for the first dimple.

The down-side of this method is you cannot flatten such parts.
But, this way you can trick Solid Edge into accepting a second dimple on an edge that already has one and as mentioned earlier this is a workaround and not a standard procedure one would adopt while working with Sheet Metal in Solid Edge.