- January 16, 2014
January 16, 2014 - Unison releases TubeWorks tube bending software. For tubular metal fabricators who use SolidWorks CAD software, it enables them to reduce order processing and pre-production development time from hours to minutes. The software automatically extracts key manufacturing information, including tube specifications and CNC bending data, from both native SolidWorks models and common CAD file formats such as STEP, IGES, and ParaSolid. It can handle tube models with round (tube and bar), square, rectangular, oval or flat-sided oval cross-sections. The TubeWorks add-in is fully integrated into SolidWorks, allowing users to take full advantage of the CAD software’s powerful design functions, and eliminates the need for any additional standalone solutions for generating manufacturing data during the design, development and production of tubular parts. The add-in software is inherently intuitive and easy to use, requires no special training and can be mastered within 10 minutes. In addition to its manufacturing data extraction capabilities, TubeWorks offers a host of powerful functions to further help users minimize the pre-production design time of machine-based tube bending. These include automated centerline creation through tubular geometry (for both round and non-round profiles) and automated conversion of imported tube models into native SolidWorks models for CLR (centerline radius) modification. The software also extensively automates the generation of 2D drawings, as well as the creation of reports for the YBC data that will be used to control the bending machine and for the XYZ coordinates of the modeled tube. To maximize flexibility and ease of use, TubeWorks is fully functional in a multi-body part environment. A searchable tooling log enables users to quickly check the types of tools – such as bend former, mandrels, wiper dies, etc – that will be necessary for a particular bending operation, while a tooling recommendation function verifies whether a part can be produced using existing tools, or suggests suitable substitutes. The software also includes an extremely useful tube length calculator, which evaluates the total length of tube that will be needed for fabricating the specific formed part.