Usage of Flex to calculate a transition of a generic shape form (in a generic way)

Problem: A plate on the side of a hull of a ship needs to be unfolded and to do this, we’ll use the Caldsoft6’s Flex tool..

The flex is a tool that allows any of shape transition to be unfolded, It’s just necessary to inform the coordinates X,Y and Z of each of the points that form the 2 edges (or "mouths") of the transition. The transition can be either open as in this exemple, or it can be closed, meaning each one of the edges form the 2 mouths of the piping.

In Auto Cad the 2 lines that form the plate to be unfolded are identified.

The AutoCAD divides the 2 lines so several points can be extracted the coordinates of these points will be informed to Flex. These coordinates could be typed, point by point, however there is a LISP routine in Caldsoft 6 that transports automatically these points to Flex.

With the Lisp routine, and with the Endpoint tool of Auto Cad all the points can be identified easily and their coordinates X,Y and Z automatically transferred to Caldsoft 6, with precision and quickness.

After the transference of the points of the 2 edges (red edge to the left and the yellow one to the right) we must only correct the Z coordinate of the edges, because the drawing done with AutoCAD is 2D, and the Z of both edges was obtained as 0. This os easy in Flex, just alter the value 0 of the Z of the first and of the last point of the yellow edge and distribute this value among all the other points of this edge. If the drawing had been done 3D in AutoCAD, ths procedure wouldn’t be necessary, because the coordinates X,Y and Z would already be correct. In the example, it was established a distance of 1200 mm between each edge.

3D view of the plate.

3D view of the plate.

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