Modeling the Internal Structure of a Flap Assembly

[cwilliamrose]

I agree the Swept Flange tool has too many limitations to be used for ribs in a typical tapered wing. One of the biggest is that the angle of the flange is not variable. If you look at my aileron's outboard tip rib, that flange angle changes constantly -- there is no sheet metal tool in SWx that could do that part and return a flat pattern. For my purposes the model I made of that part (assuming it was fairly accurate) would be good enough to make form blocks from and that's all I really need. I could also create a model of the tooling to be CNC machined.

As for this;

>>(A) it will only do perpendicular flanges <<

You can do angles other than 90°. Sometimes it's easier to extrude the flange and the fillets together but you can make it work as separate features. As long as the fillets are concentric it will become a sheet metal feature.