Throwback Thursdays: Sheet Metal

I enjoy seeing people post pictures from their past on Thursdays throughout social media platforms such as Facebook. It always reminds me that however immature we were in our youth, the characteristics that make us who we are grow and strengthen as we age and mature. The same can be said for SOLIDWORKS and the way in which tools come to life and grow over time.

In 1997 SOLIDWORKS started to go through a growth spurt of its own. There were mid-year releases as the software was adding new capabilities at a feverish pace. That year, SOLIDWORKS released SOLIDWORKS 97, and with it presented a completely new way to design sheet metal parts. They introduced the first vestiges of the powerful and flexible sheet metal tools we know and love today. When released, sheet metal in SOLIDWORKS really consisted of one primary feature, Insert Bends. In fact, this single button was often referred to as “The Sheet Metal Tool”.

Insert Bends was introduced in SOLIDWORKS 97 as the first Sheet Metal feature.

Insert Bends (which is actually still in the software today) allows you to take a thin part, and create bends at the folds in your part. Once these special bends are created, you could then unfold the part with the press of a button using either, a Bend Table, K-Factor or Bend Allowance. This was revolutionary when first released, but as many of you know, the software didn’t stop there. In SOLIDWORKS 99 the Rip feature was added to allow more flexibility when creating sheet metal parts. But this method of creating a part, adding Rips, and then using insert bends was soon to become a way of the past.

Like a young teenager developing all sorts of new features, like facial hair, a deeper voice and even pimples; these sheet metal tools were also going through some big changes. In SOLIDWORKS 2001 a whole new way of creating sheet metal parts was developed, which most of us use today. This included the introduction of Base Flange, Edge Flange, Miter Flange, Closed Corners, Tabs, Sketched Bends, Unfold/Fold and Flatten Pattern. This wave of new features also ushered in the concept of discrete tool bars for different design methods with the Sheet Metal Toolbar, which eventually led to the Tabs on the Command Manager we use today.

Sheet Metal Tools Today — Today, there is an entire tab on the Command Manager just for creating any sheet metal part you can imagine.

To list everything you can do with SOLIDWORKS Sheet Metal design tools here would be an entire post in itself. But there are several other great resources available, including free training on how to use these tools which can be found at MySolidWorks. Likewise, if you have been following my Throwback Thursday blog posts the last few weeks, you might have noticed that I am now creating a tips and tricks video the following Tuesday in what I am calling Tech Tip Tuesdays. But if you don’t want to wait until next Tuesday, you can always check out this great Part Reviewer post by my coworker Kimberly where she has a part you can dowload that uses several unique sheet metal features and describes the steps in which they were created using the Part Reviewer right inside of SOLIDWORKS.

Until next Thursday, when we take the Tardis on another adventure looking at SOLIDWORKS’ past, I wish you a great weekend. And if there’s a specific feature you would like to see highlighted on this post, please feel free to leave it in the comments below.