Panel Tutorial

"UNDER CONSTRUCTION: THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE"

This tutorial is designed to walk the user through the steps in making a Panel in the Assembly interface.

Things To Know

This tutorial is designed to walk the user through creating a Panel in the Assembly design interface. As you go through this tutorial, later procedures will assume that you understand all earlier procedures. Because of this, it is very important that you carefully step through this guide, understanding everything along the way and following all steps in order.

A few key items need to be addressed before starting the step-by-step instructions of this tutorial. It is very important for Bend-Tech users to completely understand these items:

1) PickPoints: PICKPOINTS ARE USED FOR EVERYTHING. The Assembly part of the software is largely run in full 3D. Because a computer screen is only 2D, there is an unlimited amount of depth behind and in front of the cursor. A PickPoint is a point in 3D space that can be used for creating, editing, and placing parts in Assembly design. PickPoints can be placed in a 2D environment by having their depth manually entered in the appropriate value fields.

There are 2 types of PickPoints; Those automatically created by the part by default (various colors) and user-defined points (green). In addition, the initial (0,0,0) point is an automatic point that resides at the center of the Tri-Star. The Tri-Star is our directional definition locator.

2) Center Line & Apex

Center Line: In the Assembly design environment we are working exclusively with the center-line of a part, as compared to the inside or outside.

Apex: Most bend locations are created in Assembly design with the Apex. Our definition of apex is the intersection of the straight tubes as if there wasn’t a radius.

This is demonstrated in the picture below.

3) Locational Orientation

Designing seems to work the best if users imagine they are standing behind the vehicle at a 45 degree angle. This way left is left and right is right. Take a minute and examine the Tri-Star to get your orientation.

Notice how the truck in the picture is setup with the same orientation.

4) Defining Parts

It is possible to create parts in the template and custom part interfaces, however, starting out this way tends to get confusing for new users of the software. It appears that there is a higher level of success with customers who start out designing parts directly in the assembly interface.

Start out by selecting the File -> New -> Assembly from the main pull-down menu at the top of the screen. Alternatively, you may also select the New Assembly icon in the main toolbar.