Fabrication and CAD calculators

Calculators for the developments a fabrication shop redraws most often. Seven unfold sheet metal and plate: a single bend and a multi-bend open profile (flat length and bend positions from the flange datum you actually dimension to), a box or tray blank, a cone or frustum, a large cone split into segments that fit your plate, the blank for a rolled cylinder, and a sphere or dome built from zones. Three more give the bend data behind them: your own K-factor from a test bend, bend deduction or allowance charts for any thickness, radius and angle, and an estimate of the press brake force. Four handle pipe and plate layout: wrap-around templates for angled pipe ends and pipe-to-pipe saddles, segmented (lobster-back) elbows with a cut list and a template for every piece, pipe offsets (simple and rolling), and bolt circle (PCD) hole coordinates. Three develop transitions: a rectangular hopper or duct transition into its four flat panels, a square- or rectangle-to-round into one exact flat pattern — both centred or offset — and an eccentric (offset) reducer between two round ends. And two are references: a sheet-metal gauge chart and a metal weight calculator, every value traced to a US government source.

All of them work in millimetres or inches; the thirteen that draw a part show the geometry before you commit to it and export DXF R12 with the unit recorded in the file. Bend allowance uses a K-factor you set and can see; nothing about thickness, springback or shop allowances is applied behind your back. Each tool lists what it does not account for — see the tool disclaimer — and how it is verified is on the Verification page.