How To Flatten Sheet Metal In Solidworks Drawing

Drawings of sheet metal parts can also contain views of the bent sheet metal part.

How to flatten sheet metal in solidworks drawing.

Click place views tab create panel base. Some items to note about the flat pattern feature. Bend radii and thicknesses are measured from the model and maintained making this one of the easiest ways to convert any design to a sheet metal part and get a flat pattern even if you don t have any flat faces at all. You can create dxf files of sheet metal flat patterns without creating a drawing.

From the view palette drag the flat pattern. To hide the bend lines expand flat pattern1 right click bend lines and select hide. Click make drawing from part assembly standard toolbar and click ok to open the drawing sheet. In the sheet metal view area select flat pattern view.

When you create a drawing of your sheet metal part a flat pattern is automatically created. In the flat pattern propertymanager under parameters select recreate flat pattern. Insert bends is great for an imported model that didn t start out as sheet metal but has a constant thickness. Open the sheet metal part for which you want to add a drawing.

In a sheet metal part create a new configuration. The bend lines are shown by default when you unsuppress flat pattern1. Select a format or click ok to use the default format. Right click flat pattern and select unsuppress.

In the drawing view dialog box select a sheet metal component as file. If appropriate select or clear the selection of the recover punch center option. The default configuration of a sheet metal part contains a derived configuration called defaultsm flat pattern. In the featuremanager design tree do one of the following.

You can create dxf files of sheet metal flat patterns without flattening the part. Select process bends and all of the features after it. In the featuremanager design tree right click flat pattern1 and click edit feature. Flatten tool is selected this results in the flat pattern feature being unsupressed and the part will be flattened.