Flatten Sheet Metal Part Solidworks

All features before flat pattern1 in the featuremanager design tree appear in both the folded and flattened sheet metal part.

Flatten sheet metal part solidworks. Upholstery clothing even carbon fiber layups can be calculated using this feature. Under sheet metal parameters. All features after flat pattern1 appear only in the flattened sheet metal part. These improvements also provide better flattened geometry for certain corner treatments lofted bends and in some cases where cuts intersect bend regions.

In the cut list right click the body and click flatten. To flatten the entire part if the flat pattern1 feature is present unsuppress flat pattern1 or click flatten on the sheet metal toolbar. Set the sheet thickness and default bend radius. Flatten it by converting it using the insert bends command instead.

In the solidworks open dialog set the file filter to the required file type in this example it is a step file step stp. When the flat pattern drawing view of a solidworks sheet metal part displays the part in the bent condition this can indicate an issue with the suppression state of the flat pattern feature. Select a face as the fixed face for the sheet metal part. I have a sheet metal part with two configurations.

It is designed for materials like cloth or leather but can be used for metal if there will be forming involved. Improvements to flattening sheet metal parts make flattening succeed for complex shapes which previously failed. On one of the configurations 001 the bends all flatten correctly. As shown in the figure below the flat pattern view is the same as the front view and shows the part in a bent state.

Flatten surface is only available in solidworks premium and is really the last chance for a part to be flattened from a 3d shape in automated way. However when i switch over to the second configuration 002 which is a mirrored part to the first config one of the bends that were mirrored will not flatten. Here are a few simple steps to take in order to flatten your imported part. In the featuremanager design tree select the part and click flatten sheet metal toolbar.

Stop putting a small flat section on your part just to get it to convert to sheet metal. The bend lines are shown by default when you unsuppress flat pattern1. Select keep body if you want to keep the solid body to use in another convert to sheet metal feature. In either the featuremanager design tree or the cut list right click the flat pattern feature for the part and click unsuppress.

To return the part to its bent state. I checked the bend radius and it is at 015 for both configs.