Sheet Metal Tab

Status: Implemented

Sheet Metal Tab feature dialog

The Sheet Metal Tab feature creates a base flange by extruding a closed sketch (or face) by a specified thickness. Besides generating geometry via the robust sweep implementation, it records the sheet thickness so downstream flange/cutout tools can reuse the value.

Inputs

  • profile – Closed sketch or face defining the tab footprint. If a sketch is selected it will be removed from the scene once the tab body is generated.
  • thickness – Sheet metal thickness. The feature uses this value for both the physical extrusion distance and the stored sheet metadata.
  • placementMode – Determines how the thickness is applied relative to the sketch plane: forward, reverse, or midplane (symmetric).
  • bendRadius – Captured default bend radius for the part. The geometry ignores this value (tabs are planar) but downstream flange/cutout features reuse it.
  • consumeProfileSketch – Checkbox to remove the driving sketch after the tab is created. Disable to leave the sketch visible for edits or reuse.
  • boolean.operation / boolean.targets – Optional union/subtract/intersect with existing solids.

Behaviour

  • Tabs reuse the BREP.Sweep translator to form solids and automatically remove consumed sketches unless consumeProfileSketch is turned off.
  • Every resulting solid receives userData.sheetMetal metadata (baseType: TAB, thickness, bendRadius, consumeProfileSketch, etc.) plus mirrored entries in the MetadataManager.
  • Thickness must be greater than zero; negative inputs flip the placement automatically unless an explicit mode is chosen.