Study on the Program for the Sheet Metal Development with SolidWorks API

Abstract

This paper presents a method for generating the development of a sheet metal product. In this work, Dynamic Programming is adopted in order to obtain the optimal development and it is implemented using API (Application Programming Interface) of SolidWorks (a 3-D CAD system). The system gives some optimal solutions quickly, which are practically enough to be used in the industrial situations. Furthermore, it is found that, when the shape is complex, the development may be piled up. In such case, we show that suitable development can be obtained by adding dividing points.