By Shaun Griffiths
Creating model states is a function introduced into Inventor in the 2022 release. This is a topic I have posted about previously “Creating and using model states in the part environment”. However, in this blog I will be demonstrating how different model states can be used within the sheet metal environment.
Below we can see that similar to normal model state applicatons in standard parts, variations can be created within sheet metal. Here we have a 20mm variant and a 30mm varaint of a sheet metal part.
Produced by right clicking on the model states folder, selecting new and renaming the state.
Once activated, by right clicking or double clicking, the change in the height parameter can be stored in the new model state.
However, another application may be to represent bend order as part of the manufacturing process.
If you unfold each bend using the unfold tool as a separate feature, they will be stored in the model browser as individual unfolds operations.
Then you can suppress each unfold to represent a different bend for each state.
With each of these states set, you could create a screen video to show the bend order or place each state as a base view on a drawing in the correct order.