Working with Flat Patterns

A flat pattern is a 3D shape in a flattened state. When you generate a flat pattern as part of strategy draping settings, you might want to make changes to it, such as to:

• Add extra material in an area for manufacturing reasons.
• Correct an issue with an existing flat pattern.
• Add geometry that will be used for purposes other than cutting.
• Optimize where splices are on the material.

For example, the outer mesh layer on airplane fuselage might need to just have connectivity rather than be contiguous, and should adhere to a specific ply or sub-ply shape. In some cases, you might even want to just manually create a flat pattern yourself, if the generated ply is not close enough to what you need.

Edit a Flat Pattern

Note: If you edit a flat pattern that was generated as part of a strategy, any associations it has with 3D geometry will be removed. For this reason, you might only want to proceed with edits as part of the final phase of work on the part. Also, if at a later point you adjust draping settings in the strategy dialog box and regenerate the flat pattern, this will overwrite any edits you have made.

1. Right-click the flat pattern node in the TruPlan browser.
   
2. Select Edit Flat Pattern from the context menu.
   The Inventor Sketch environment opens, and a flat pattern node is added to the Model browser.

   
3. Use Inventor Sketch tools to modify your flat pattern.

   Your edited flat pattern must be a closed contour; it must not contain any open or self-intersected segments.

   As you edit the pattern, the old contours are shown in white, while the new are show in a contrasting colour; for example, when you use the Deep Blue Inventor color scheme, the new contours are green.

   

   1. Old contours
   2. New contour
4. Before finishing, make sure that your edited pattern is valid, otherwise your edits will be ignored.
5. Click Finish Sketch on the ribbon to return to TruPlan.

   The sketch is removed from the Model browser and the flat pattern is updated in TruPlan, with a new contour node added under the flat pattern node.

Tip: If after exiting Sketch and returning to the TruPlan environment you find that your flat pattern edits have been ignored because your edits were not valid, you can get back the edits you did so you can fix any problems. To do this, click Undo, which will restore the edited flat pattern, possibly containing invalid contours, to the Model browser. Use the Sketch environment once more to correct the flat pattern. Once you have successfully done this and exited the Sketch environment, your edited flat pattern will be present in your TruPlan project, and the sketch will be removed from the model browser, as expected.

Add a Flat Pattern

Add a flat pattern directly to a ply. This will not be a part of any strategy. A ply can contain no more than one flat pattern added in this way.

1. Right-click the ply to which you want to add the flat pattern.
2. Select Add Flat Pattern from the context menu.
   A new flat pattern node is added under the ply.

   
3. Right-click the new flat pattern node and select Edit Flat Pattern to make changes to it in the Inventor Sketch environment.