SheepMetal is a Grasshopper plugin for sheet metal parts. It turns 3D geometry into a Sheet (a part that knows its flanges, bends, hems and holes), then unrolls it into a flat pattern with bend compensation. New to the terms? See Sheet Metal Basics.
Install#
SheepMetal runs on Rhino 7.31+ and Rhino 8.12+.
- In Rhino, run
PackageManager. - Search for "SheepMetal" and click Install.
- Restart Rhino.
Your first flat pattern#
The fastest way to a result is a polyline profile.
- Draw a polyline in the XY plane, for example a U shape.
- Wire it into Polyline To Sheet (PTS). Set Thickness to 2, Bend Radius to 2 and Depth to 100.
- Wire the Sheet output into Display Sheet (DS) to see the flanges and bends in color.
- Wire the Sheet into Unroller (U). The Unrolled output is the flat pattern.
- Wire a number between 0 and 1 into the Unroller's Compensation Strategy input to set your K-factor. Without one, every bend uses K = 0.45.
Video tutorial#
Known limitations#
- Rolled parts: cylindrical or rolled parts are not supported.
- One radius per conversion: Non-Manifold To Sheet and Polyline To Sheet use a single bend radius for all bends. Hems get their own.
- Countersink holes: thickening a flat pattern that has countersink holes is not supported yet.
Download and support#
- Food4Rhino: SheepMetal
- Author: Felix Brunold / VektorNode AG
- Contact: felix@vektornode.com