Once you have added the plates you require, you can calculate the developed shape of each plate using the Calc Plate commands from the Plate menu. After the developed shape of a plate has been calculated, it is displayed in the Part window. You can use the pop-up menu in the Part window to choose which plate is displayed. Also you can switch on any contour lines, frames and stringer paths.
The accuracy of the plate shape will depend on the precision setting at the time you choose the Calc command. However, you should always add plates using highest precision. If you are developing very long plates, you may need to turn on the Smooth Plate Edges option. This will fit a smooth spline along the edges of the plate after development to remove any faceting that may occur.
To achieve accurate plates while being able to work fast we recommend the following work order:
· Set precision to highest when adding the plate (use Smooth Plate Edges for long plates)
· Set precision to lowest– medium to quickly see if the plate is developed correctly
· Set precision to highest when calculating the final plate.
Important!
Always use high or preferably highest precision when selecting “Add Plate” or “Add Surface Plate”.
Also see:
Workshop Precision on page 10
Old Developable Method on page 64.
Plate development will be performed to the mid-line of the designed surface and the surface with the selected material's thickness deducted.
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The plate will be expanded based on a surface on the mid-line between the designed surface and the surface with thickness added or deducted. You must have specified a material for the plate and have used the Surface Properties command in Maxsurf and the Outside Arrows command to specify the surface direction in which the plate thickness is to be added or deducted.
You can view the expanded plate in the Part window using the Zoom, Shrink, Pan and Home View commands. You can also copy, print and plot the drawing in this window including copying the expansion into a CAD system via a DXF file.
Also see:
Check Outside Arrows on page 9
Deduct Skin Thickness on page 19
For surfaces that have a lot of curvature, the surface cannot be developed using only one plate. This happens when a surface wraps around an angle greater than 90°. The following error message will appear when you try to calculate (read: develop) the plate:
For information on subdividing surfaces, see: Adding a Plate on page 55.