Sheet Metal

Oh sheet metal...  so useful but so tedious
After going through the inventor tutorials for sheet metal, I was assigned to a piece of sheet metal to model in Inventor. the lucky piece of scrap happened to be a Simpson Strong-Tie! A piece so over looked in every building (mainly because it is covered up) is actually really complicated and ingenious. I chose to model it in metric because I tested out a few basic measurements and they all came out to be closer to an easy millimeter more often than a happy inch (cough cough USA). 

Above is the fancy not-so-fancy rendering now available in Inventor 2012 with it's crazy power sucking Ray Tracing. Looks cool for a quick print screen eh? Took maybe 2 classes (one of my days) to do the actual model of it yet the drawing was much more complicated.

When I first started to make the flat patter, it froze, then when it finally loaded it was set at a 45deg angle. I had to quickly learn how to instantly adjust the 'definition' of the flat pattern to make it level, straight, square, and plum and stuff. After a few minutes of tricking Inventor, it all came true. The next hard part was fitting all those dimension in the B size sheet. I know I'm probably going to have a good bit of them missing but after a few minutes of staring at it, I don't think I can actually fit any more in there. So instead of taking another day of staring, I figure I should just move on and draw something else. 
... So that's what I plan to do...

BACK IN CLASS

HEY LOOK! I AM BACK IN CLASS! IMAGINE THAT. 

THIS YEAR I AM IN TECHNICAL MANUFACTURING AND 3D MODELING (YES INVENTOR IS ALREADY MY STRONG SUIT BUT THAT'S OK, DON'T ASK). 

SO, EVEN THOUGH IT IS MY AREA OF "EXPERTISE", I AM STILL LEARNING A LOT IN INVENTOR. THESE PAST COUPLE OF DAYS I HAVE BEEN DOING WELDS. AUTODESK INVENTOR MAKES THEM A BIT EASIER THAN IN AUTOCAD EXCEPT FOR THE PART THAT THERE IS NOT A STRAIGHT FORWARD WAY TO DO A PLUG WELD. YOU HAVE TO SPLIT THE FACES AND MAKE IT A FUNKY GROOVE WELD. HERE IS A LINK TO A QUICK TUTORIAL MY TEACHER (J REECE) MADE FOR HIS BLOG. 

AFTER A FEW DRAWINGS THAT SPECIALIZED IN DIFFERENT KINDS OF WELDS, THIS DRAWING HAS ALL OF THE BASICS. ITS GOT A FEW GROOVE WELDS, A FILLET WELD, AND THE CRAZY PLUG WELD. EACH WELD ALSO VARIES IN SPECIAL FINISHES AND WHETHER IT IS ANNOTATED TO BE ON BOTH SIDES OR NOT.