Modeling wire baskets
Does anyone know if it's possible to model a wire basket and then flatten it into a mesh?
4 Answers
Not really. AFAIK. That would require a feature similar to flatten in sheet metal.
If you are looking for flat pattern
Draw using sheet metal square sections ( 1/8"x1/8" )
These square wires will unfold
Not perfect but may be of use
William, You can see my files which I uploaded. Make a sheetmetal plate, cut it in a form of pattern which you wish. Then make a sketch line which will be constrained in the middle. It is important that you know a inside radius of cylnder beacuse when you use a "sketched bend" put that value in right place and do not forget to put a value to "angle" 359 degees, Its demand a little playing. IMPORTANT NOTE, In SW 2007 algoritm which is builded inside for "sketched bend" do not allow holes on end lines radii - it's visible so that you can limited numbers of radii and corresponding angles. See "bucket" part, you can play with it.
About the flattening: not in SolidWorks, unless you play some magic with sheetmetal. In Rhino, there are some options that could do that, although I haven;t used those extendedly yet.
You may want to cut the basket somewhereso it will not be circular, but has a start and end. I would suggest using Insert>Curve>Split line, perhaps that will split your basket up. You could also make a very tiny cut extrude along its radius-direction. After that, you might be able to use Insert>Features>Flex to bend your basket in such a way that it would at least look flat...
I wish you good luck figuring it all out!
