Adding fasteners to rolled sheet metal in SOLIDWORKS

If you need to add fasteners to a rolled sheet metal part in SOLIDWORKS this outlines the correct procedure. You may be familiar with the technique of creating a rolled sheet metal part and then rolling back in the feature tree to show the flat pattern. You can add a hole wizard to this flat pattern but when you roll it back up the holes are no longer circular. Instead we will insert the holes when it is in the rolled state. I have used centerlines to position the points where I need them on the cylinder.

Hole wizard

I would then bring the sheet metal into an assembly to add the hardware. With the toolbox and smart fasteners I can quickly bring in a bolt for each hole. The problem with this technique is the cylinder only creates the concentric mate. The bolts are free to move in and out of the hole.

Smart fastener

I could use tangent mates to align the inside of the bolt head to the outside of the cylinder but if I have more than a handful of screws that could take a while. Instead I am going to just add a single fastener into one hole and then pattern it with a pattern driven pattern. That way the bolts are all tangent to the outside face.

Pattern
 

Thanks,

Jordan Nardick, Elite AE
Applications Engineer
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

  • Share this
Find Your Design Solution in the CATI Store.
Browse Products