By Chris Turner
In Inventor 2020, a new command called ‘Unwrap’ has been added to the part modelling environment.
The ‘Unwrap’ command is a tool for extreme deformation that doesn’t leverage the existing Inventor Sheetmetal bend and unfold tools. Previously there was no workflow to get a flat pattern of complex elements like material for example.
Unwrap now allows you to flatten any face or faces on a part and get the rough estimate of what it would take to get a required ‘blank’ size. Just the current face topology is taken and flattened.
NOTE: There are no Sheetmetal styles or bend allowances (K-Factor) with this command, but it does help if you can’t get a legitimate flat pattern using the existing tools.
Once you have created the unwrap, an isolated View Representation can be optionally saved and used to document in a drawing.
The surface preview displays a surface mesh and heat map. The areas of low deformation and tension are blue and areas of high deformation and tension are red. After creation, edit the unwrap feature to view the heat map.