Bend Reduction Editor

Predicting elongation in a tube shape requires complex mathematics that changes per customer application. Benderlink for SolidWorks now allows operators to program their Bend Reduction formula into the program. This is the Bend Reduction Function editor:

The editor is very powerful because it allows you to enter action Pascal code to define the function that returns the adjusted arc lengths. This is an example bend reduction program included with Benderlink:

Sample Program

var
  BendAllowance: real;
  NewArc: real;
begin
  BendAllowance := 0.64;
  NewArc := ((BendAllowance * blinksw(OD) + (PI/2 * (blinksw(CLR)-0.5 * blinksw(OD) ))) / 90) * blinksw(BENDANGLE);
  //MessageDlg('New Arc Length: ' + floattostr(NewArc), mtInformation, [mbOK], 0);
  result := NewArc;
end;

The Function's Result

The value returned is called the "result". At the bottom of the code (just before the "end;" line), the...

result := NewArc;

...line of code assigns the value in the NewArc variable to each arc length in Benderlink during conversion.

The function result type should be either "real", "double", or "extended" - which are all floating point types.

Accessing Benderlink's Values

There are three special functions that insert values from the bend data during conversion:

Insert the Outer Diameter

blinksw(OD)

Insert the Centerline Radius

blinksw(CLR)

Insert the Bend Angle

blinksw(BENDANGLE)

Each of these are should be formed as a complete word with no spaces between any of the characters.

Creating New Variables

Pascal is a strongly typed language that requires variables to be predefined in the "var" section like this:

var
  BendAllowance: real;
  NewArc: real;

Each variable is given a name like "BendAllowance" then its type is defined with a colon and the type. A few simple examples are:

var
  iValue: integer;
  bValue: boolean;
  rValue: real;
  szVal: string

All of this is placed before the "begin" statement.

Begin and End

Pascal starts and ends the actual formula section with the "begin" and "end" statements. They are required. Note that the "end;" statement has a semi-colon following.

begin

end;

Mathematical Function List

These are the available math functions:

blinksw(OD)
blinksw(CLR)
blinksw(BENDANGLE)
sqr()
sqrt()
arctan()
cos()
sin()
tan()
abs()
exp()
ln()
log()
int()
frac()
trunc()
round()
arcsin()
arccos()
sign()
not()
PI
ArcCos()
ArcCosh()
ArcCot()
ArcCotH()
ArcCsc()
ArcCscH()
ArcSec()
ArcSecH()
ArcSin()
ArcSinh()
ArcTan2()
ArcTanh()
Cosecant()
Cosh()
Cot()
Cotan()
CotH()
Csc()
CscH()
CycleToDeg()
CycleToGrad()
CycleToRad()
DegToCycle()
DegToGrad()
DegToRad()
GradToCycle()
GradToDeg()
GradToRad()
Hypot()
IntPower()
IsInfinite()
IsNan()
Ldexp()
LnXP1()
Log10()
Log2()
LogN()
Max(
Min()
Power()
RadToCycle()
RadToDeg()
RadToGrad()
RandG()
RandomRange()
Sec()
Secant()
SecH()
Sinh()
Tan()
Tanh()

Bend Reduction Editor

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