A Knowledgebase for all Die Designers…

Updating the flat blank geometry along with the cutting punches and all of the openings in the die is a very easy process if the correct steps are followed. Rather than try to explain it all here though, I will simply point you to our ten minute long video #9 on our “Logopress3 Strip Layout & Die Design” video series page.

Click here for the High Def video page as long as you have a fair connection to the Internet.

Click here for the Standard video page if you have problems viewing the HD page.

Tips to remember to make your update after development go smoothly:

1. Use the power and automation of Logopress3 to make the change. Don’t do it “manually”.
2. You must make your change to the Reference Part (the part that contains the Station marks) and NOT to the Annex Part.
3. Make your change at the proper place in the tree – it might need to be earlier than just before the final flat blank Station mark.
4. If possible, do a Move face to update the flat blank geometry. This will typically keep you from having to edit the punch sketch.
5. After making the change to the Reference Part before the correct Station mark, roll to the end of the tree and do a Ctrl + Q to update the body files.
6. Open the Annex Part and then click on the Logopress3 pull down menu and select “Update the stations of the Annex part used in the strip”.
7. Answer yes to the rebuild question – this causes the import feature to automatically re-import the newly created/modified body files into the Annex part.
8. Open the strip assembly. Do NOT concern yourself with the tool assembly at this point. Leave it closed to keep yourself from being tempted to modify it.
9. In the strip assembly, if you have modified geometry cut by the punches that involved new sketch entities as I did to the external punch in the video, it will have errors in the sketch.
10. If you did not add or remove sketch entities in the flat blank geometry, but only moved it via the Move face command or changing a dimension on a fillet radius, for example, then everything will update fine on that punch.
11. (It is a good idea to edit the punch that has errors in its sketch, then create a new sketch within this part file by selecting the front plane for example and converting entities (using the SolidWorks “Convert entities” command of course) from the face of the punch to capture the original geometry before you are about to make this change to it. Then, display the relations for that newly created sketch and delete all relations. Then, select all of the underdefined sketch geometry and add a Fix relation so that it is fully defined. Now this newly created sketch is no longer being parametrically driven and it is a good idea to move it to the top of the tree and name it “Original punch geometry before development” or some such thing so that you can remember what it is. This way, particularly if the punch and die have already been wire EDMed, you have this original geometry in the model in case you need to delete all of the sketch entities for the extrude of the punch that is being updated and then reconvert them from this newly created sketch that has no parent. (a dumb sketch, if you will) This is sometimes necessary if the geometry becomes overdefined…)
12. Use the Logopress3 command “Create/Edit a strip layout” and then select the punch that has errors in it and delete the dangling geometry. At this point, it is a good practice for convenience sake to switch the SolidWorks display style from “Shaded With Edges” to “Shaded” – this allows the sketch geometry stand out like a sore thumb from the cut edges of the solid model. It hides those cut edges, making sketch editing much nicer.
13. The “Blank section Sketch 1″ that is in the Strip Skeleton will be visible at this point. After deleting the dangling geometry, select the new geometry that had been changed in the flat blank and use Convert entities to convert them into the current sketch.
14. Validate the sketch and there should now no longer be any errors in this punch.
15. Now, when you switch to the tool assembly, the tool assembly should aut0matically rebuild all punch cuts through all plates.
16. If there were no errors in the strip assembly after following the steps above and in the video, and after switching to the tool assembly there are errors in the punch, you may have to edit this punch cut manually in the tool. The correct way to do this is to convert entities or offset entities from the punch sketch that is in the strip. But typically, correct updating practice will cause the tool to automatically rebuild itself.

-IMPORTANT- info for LP3 users, LP3 How-To's for users