Part VII: Working with Specialized Functionality
FIGURE 29.25The Form Tool PropertyManager and a sample tool with orientation sketch
The Stopping Face turns a special color, and so do any faces that are selected in the Faces to
Remove selection box. Faces to Remove means that those faces will be cutouts in the sheet metal
part.Another aspect of the forming tool is the orientation sketch. Create the orientation sketch by using
Convert Entities on the Stopping Face. If you have used this function in any of its previous ver-
sions, then you know that this latest iteration is far easier to create than before. However, to me, it
looks like the orientation sketch has taken a step backward. The orientation sketch cannot be man-
ually edited, and so for forming tools where footprints are symmetrical, but other features in the
tool are not, you cannot tell from the sketch which direction the forming tool should face.
Orientation could be managed more easily in earlier versions of forming tools because the place-
ment sketch was just a manually created sketch.When creating a forming tool, you must remember to build in generous draft and fillets, and not to
build undercuts into the tool. Also keep in mind that when you have a concave fillet face on the
tool, the radius becomes smaller by the thickness of the sheet metal; as a result, you must be care-
ful about minimum radius values on forming tools. If there is a concave face on the tool that has a
.060-inch radius and the tool is applied to a part with a .060-inch thickness, then the tool will
cause an error because it forms a zero radius fillet, which is not allowed. Errors in applied forming
tool features cannot be edited or repaired, except by changing forming tool dimensions.Once the forming tool is created, special colors are used for every face on the part. For example,
the Stopping Face is a light blue color, Faces to Remove are red, and all the other faces are yellow.
Figure 29.26 shows the small addition that is made to the FeatureManager when you make a part
into a forming tool. This feature did not exist in older versions of the tool.Forming Tool Library
The folder that the forming tools are placed into in the Design Library must be designated as a
Forming Tool folder. To do this, right-click the folder that contains the forming tools and select
Forming Tool Folder (a check mark appears next to this option).