Creating a Process Method Plan

You can easily create and edit a method plan.

Notes:

This task shows you how to:

Define General Inputs and Parameters

You can define the general inputs and parameters in the Global Definition section.

  1. From the Method Planning section of the action bar, click Process Method Plan .
  2. Select the press axis system to define the press direction of the method plan.

    It is usually the part axis system.

  3. Select the process result geometry, that is the surface that represents the output part of the whole process (Design part).
  4. Select the blank axis.

    The blank axis is the reference to manipulate the blank position. It is usually the press position translated to the center of gravity of the blank or output part.

    If the blank axis is not defined, Process Method Plan

    • Computes one from the press direction and the center of gravity of the output geometry.
    • Or uses the axis defined as output geometry in the Part Positioning feature.

  5. Select the blank geometry (Sketch or surface) to define the initial sheet of metal geometry.

    The result Method Plan feature contains the blank geometry, as

    • The specified blank surface, if the blank is a surface.
    • A fill surface if the blank is a wireframe.

    1. Click Define Blank Properties to edit the blank partition that is automatically created from the selected input.
    2. Click Define Blank Swiveling to define the blank swiveling.
    3. Click Define Blank Reference Position to define the blank reference position (preposition) on an axis system.

    For more information, see Positioning the Part

  6. Select the part axis.

    An axis system is required for each domain of the result geometry to define each part position independently from the others in Process Step (Positioning section).

    If the part axis is not defined, Process Method Plan

    • Computes one from the press direction and the center of gravity of each part.
    • Or uses the axis defined as output geometry in the Part Positioning feature.

  7. Select the Check Process Result check box to verify that the output geometry of Process Method Plan is the same as the selected Process Result Geometry.
  8. Select the Force Concept Mode check box to ignore all specified detailed geometries and revert to the concept view of the process.

    Perform an update after each modification.

  9. Select a standard file from the list.
    • If a Process Method Plan is created, the standard file is read to initialize the parameters.
    • If no Process Method Plan exists, but an analysis is created, the standard file is read to initialize the analysis parameters.
    • If a Process Method Plan is created from the read file, and an analysis is created afterward, relations are created depending on the type of the elements to analyze (Geometry resulting from a cut tool, geometry resulting from a curve partition, …).
    • Global parameters are stored under the Process Method Plan (and created if they do not yet exist).

Edit the Method Plan

You can edit the process step and tools of the method plan.

Open the dialog box.
  1. Add, edit, or remove tools.
  2. Enter user values.
  3. Create or remove user attributes.

Define the Default Step Positioning

You can define a default positioning used to automatically position process steps.

  1. Define the process display direction, that is the translation direction for each process step.

    By default, it is the X-axis of the part.

  2. Enter the distance between steps, that is the translation value of each process step.

Define the Default Step Naming

You can enter the values used to name each process step.

  1. Enter the initial step name index.
  2. Enter the step name interval.
  3. Optional: Select or clear the Display OP Name check box.

The formula Initial Step Name Index + (Step number - 1)*Step Name Interval defines the default index of a process step.

For example, if

  • Initial Step Name Index=15
  • Step Name Interval=5
the index of step 3 is : 15+(3-1)*5=25, that is, OP25.

Manage Scrap Geometries

You can manage manual planning of elements.

  1. Open the dialog box.
  2. Select the elements to add.

    For more information, see Manage Scraps.

Define the Default Analysis Parameters

You can configure the global parameters to analyze the process.

Open the dialog box and enter requested information.

For more information, see Set Global Parameters.