SheetMetal Forming

Description
The SheetMetal Forming command creates an embossed shape in a SheetMetal wall using a separate solid object.

The back side plane of the shapedefining solid is used to position and orient the embossed shape, i.e. their local coordinate systems will have the same origin and the same orientation by default. The angle around the z-axis and offsets in x, y, and z direction may be altered by changing the parameter values in the properties window.

Usage

 * 1) Select the wall of the SheetMetal object to be embossed
 * 2) Select the back side of the shape defining solid
 * 3) *Note: Don't forget the / key!
 * 4) Activate the [[Image:SheetMetal_Forming.svg|16px]] Make Forming in Wall command using:
 * 5) * button
 * 6) * drop down menu
 * 7) * keyboard shortcut: then

Preparation
This bowl is made of a folded sheet metal object with a shape embossed, both have to be prepared in advance.

No need to work with coplanar sketches here.



Workflow

 * 1) Select the wall of the SheetMetal object to be embossed
 * 2) Select the back side of the shape defining solid [[Image:SheetMetal_Forming-04.png|240px]]
 * 3) Press the  button or use the keyboard shortcut:  then  [[Image:SheetMetal_Forming-05.png|240px]]  Done!
 * 4) Alter orientation and position
 * 5) Activate the [[Image:SheetMetal_Forming.svg|16px]] WallForming object in the Tree view
 * 6) Set the value of the parameter angle to e.g. 45° [[Image:SheetMetal_Forming-01.png|240px]]
 * 7) Set the value of the parameter offset, x to e.g. greater than 0 [[Image:SheetMetal_Forming-06.png|240px]] Here it is plain to see that it doesn't make sense to move the embossed geometry outside the selected wall.
 * 8) Setting the value of the parameter offset, z to e.g. greater than 0 isn't any better: [[Image:SheetMetal_Forming-07.png|240px]] At least the FreeCAD doesn't crash when a part has two bodies...
 * 9) Some hints
 * 10) The height of the defining solid determines the depth of the embossed shape. That means changing the parameter offset, z to alter the depth won't deliver expected results.
 * 11) The embossed geometry is made of a shell object i.e. it has a constant thickness. And so the defining solid has to be offsetable, otherwise the tool will fail to create the emboss.