I am struggling to design sheet metal ramps with a tab & slot design (tab might be shaped sort of like a J so you can slide into the slot, move the part forward, and “lock” the tab).
Here’s my basic design. The ramps are sloped, may curve left or right, etc. The sides should be removable. Ultimately they’ll be welded to the bottom but I need to design in 3 pieces - bottom + 2 sides.
Thanks!
I‘d recommend using the sweep tool, although I‘m not sure if the profile of the ramp changes over the course of the path. If not, the sweep tool might be a lot better than guided lofting.
I can use sweep vs loft to design the ramp as you see in the picture (although designing with sweep when I make a curve that spirals down to another level doesn’t work great). The problem I’m having is, how to design this ramp as 3 different pieces with tab & slots to hold the pieces together? If I design just the floor of the ramp and then try to add tabs, I can’t quite get them to conform to the ramp shape. Designing sides apart from the floor with slots that match the tabs is completely beyond my skillset.
Now I understand your difficulty. Are these going to be 3d printed or manufactured from metal? In 3d printing, you can use constraint tabs, I’ll link a video below which explains the different types quite well. If you need help modeling the tab of your choice, I’d be happy to help!
I watched that video before I posted here but still struggling. Here’s a rough sketch of what I’m trying to do:
Well, on second thought, I’d use a clamp, like the one in the image. I don’t know if this is an option for you, but it seems like the most secure solution. You‘d have to place them,with some specific spacing, but that would be it. If this is for e g transporting something or flow liquids /which mean you can’t disrupt the flat surface of the „floor“ sheet, you could nest the clamps in like in the second surface. Although, it might be that I’m overcomplicating things.
You keep suggesting alternatives but I really just need the solution I suggested. Not sure if that’s impossible. I suppose your clamp idea might work (although I can’t have the indent on the surface of the floor that you have shown). These are going to be metal ramps in a pinball machine. They don’t have to be water tight. In fact, I will probably spot weld them when they are done but I need the pieces to be able to be dry fit together with tab and slot and hold in place while I am prototyping. Even if I could design what you have shown, I have no idea how to make those clamp parts conform to my curvy design and line up everywhere without trying (and failing) to do them one by one.
I think this is the method your are looking for.
I would separate the floor and the side rails and create the hook. The hook can be projected down to make the hole and adjust the hole tolerance to fit.
Also I think Marks suggestion is create a prebuilt connector that you can join or add on to.
Yes this exactly. I just don’t know how to do what you did.
Because it’s a curved in every direction. I would duplicate the wall so I can extend to make a cut out.
You can duplicate upwards into some memorable offset like 5mm so you can move it back down to the correct location easily.
Duped it and extended it 1mm, the hook will be 1mm in height, also I project the bottom of the rail down.
Using the projection, I figure I make almost 2mm wide hook, you can add smaller line to make total 2 mm in length if you need more precision.
I choose area that had the most curvature, just to show more extreme example.
You can extend that sketch to create a face you can use to draw the hook.
I used the bottom edge of the rail to project it on to the new face and sketch what looks like a hook.
Created the hook you just need to move it down 5mm.
and use the bottom face to project it down so you can make the cut out on the floor.
Hope that made sense.
Yes thanks very much. This will give me something to work with.
Oh well. Sorry about that, I really did everything except doing what you asked for…
Hi @boslaw hope you are doing well.
I saw your post and was intrigued how you achieved that curved slopes.
I’m having a hard time trying to sweep a tube profile across three axis, see if you can help me please:
Hi, I am a complete beginner and I do everything by trial and error. That ramp took me MANY tries 
1st I created a U shaped sketch for the outline of the ramp.
Then, I create a copy of the U shaped sketch and I move it to the middle of the ramp (both length and height).
Then I create another copy of the U shaped sketch and move it to position, and so on.
Once I have U sketches in various positions, I start from the 1st U shaped sketch and I use the Sweep function to build the ramp one piece at a time. It doesn’t always work perfectly. Sometimes I have to redo it, or use Loft for some segments. I’m really not very good at modeling but I can usually get to what I need after trying MANY different things and my methods are probably not the most efficient. I’m sure someone much more skilled than me could come and explain a much better and easier way to do what I have done.
Sali
There is also the possibility to buy a book, for example for construction technology.
Most people who work with the 3d program come from the 2d cad world.
And have a good imagination in drawing plans. Most of the time it is very easy if you draw plan and sections floor plans in 2d
The other possibility that Shaper 3d offers you can start modeling on it like in a sketchbook
Mit freundlichen Grüssen
Andreas Desiderius Haudenschild
2025-04-07T22:00:00Z
Thank you, that actually helped me a lot!
