SPI SheetMetal Inventor Suite Advantages

The solution

The SPI SheetMetal Inventor Suite is 100% integrated with the current Inventor solution. SPI enhance the basic sheet metal features of Autodesk Inventor. The unfolding of complex sheet metal parts is calculated in seconds. SPI's software - in just a few seconds - leaves a flat pattern transferable to e. g. laser or punch CAM programs and press brake control systems (special interface for  Trumpf, Delem and Cybelec included) and to bending simulation software.
 

Advantage

SPI SheetMetal complements the basic sheet metal functions of Autodesk Inventor and offers a range of helpful capabilities for sheet metal design and unfolding, especially regarding the process chain and the direct transfer of data to manufacturing.

The automatic flat generation provides fast, accurate flattening of 3D sheet metal parts to create the complete 2D flat information needed. SPI - in just seconds - generates an associative flat pattern transferable to e. g. laser or punch CAM programs and press brake control systems (special interface for Trumpf, Delem and Cybelec included) and to bending simulation software. Optionally a ToPs GEO file is generated including the complete bending information for TruTops Bend software.
 

Close to production

The flat pattern is transferable to laser or punch CAM programs and press brake control systems (e.g. Delem, Cybelec). Optional access to TruTops Bend machine information is realized as well as the import of several tools from the TruTops Punch libraries. The initial selection of the manufacturing capabilities ensures that only the materials, tools and process available are recommended to the designer, avoiding rejection on non-manufacturable parts and the resulting rework..
 

Sharp cornered Inventor parts, lofted solids, or curved surfaces (e.g. conical, elliptic, transitions) can be transferred to 2D drawings without problems. Unfolding of freeform surfaces is possible, bending angles > 360° are allowed. As soon as a solid is designed the flat pattern is created including the calculation of bend allowance based on k-factor, free formula, shortening values or other attributes for special bend allowance calculation. Automatic corner reliefs are available even at filleted bend areas. Thus, using the SPI application, expensive and time wasting rework isn't required any more.

Parts, which have been designed with bend radius "0" can be unfolded. No unfold problems with conversions from polygon to circular occur. The unfold shape of cones, even with axes is generated in seconds. Pipes with non perpendicular cuts can be unfolded without any problems. The unfold shape shows the inner and outer contour of the cut. Tolerance parameters enable the designer to unfold even inaccurate parts that have been imported from other systems, e.g. STEP.

From the beginning SPI sheet metal software was able to create bending lines together with the unfolding of sheet metal parts. Now this is even possible with freeform surfaces, too. The reason: transition parts generated with Autodesk Inventor using the Loft command are freeform surfaces. These surfaces can easily be unfolded with the SPI unfold functions and you can immediately use the flat shape for laser cutting. Some freeform parts are manufactured by roll forming. In many cases they are actually manufactured by applying several bends. The SPI unfolding software can create the needed bending lines without any modification of the original 3D model or the geometry and its feature structure remains as it is. It remains parametric and can be modified in its assembly context. The resulting number of bending lines calculated with the unfolding is driven by the user defined SPI unfold parameters. A bending line table is always available on demand.

With SPI it is possible to create associative unfold views in an Inventor drawing document. After any model change the corresponding SPI unfolding is updated automatically. The creation of it can be started from an Inventor drawing document. Here one selects the desired 3D part and the position of the unfolding view in the 2D drawing document. It is possible to have multiple unfold views for the same or different parts in one document.
 

The result can be transferred to laser- and stamping machines as DXF-file, bending information goes to bending machines.SPI allows the export of the unfolding geometry to the ToPs GEO format. The created files can be uploaded to several modules of TruTops Laser (ToPs 100) and TruTops Punch (ToPS 300) of TRUMPF. Time-consuming rework with the help of the ToPs drawing editor is void.
The result is significant cost savings and shorter design cycle. SPI SheetMetal Inventor is proven in production across a broad range of industries, allowing product designers and manufacturers to get quality products to market faster at a lower cost. More than 25 years of experience in the world of sheet metal define SPI to be one of the most competent CAD developers for the sheet metal industry.

Punch and stamp tools

SPI provides a library of punch and stamp tools. With the new SPI tool manager it is guaranteed that only tools are applied which are available for manufacturing. Optional access to TruTops Bend machine information is realized as well as the import of several tools from the TruTops Punch libraries.

SPI SheetMetal Inventor supports the 3D formats listed below: