Flattening Sheet Metal Bends
You can flatten the bends in a sheet metal part in the following ways:
-
To flatten the entire part, if the Flat-Pattern1 feature is present, unsuppress Flat-Pattern1, or click Flatten
on the Sheet Metal toolbar.
The bend lines are shown by default when you unsuppress Flat-Pattern1. To hide the bend lines, expand Flat-Pattern1, right-click Bend-Lines, and select Hide.When you flatten the entire part in this manner, corner treatments are applied to create a clean, flattened sheet metal part. - To flatten the entire part, if the Process-Bends1 feature is present, suppress Process-Bends1, or click Flatten
- To flatten one or more individual bends, add an Unfold
feature.
For faster system performance, only unfold the bends that you need for the task that you are performing. For example, when you add a cut across a bend, only unfold that one bend.
Using Corner Treatments
When you flatten a sheet metal part by unsuppressing the Flat-Pattern feature, corner treatments are automatically applied to create a clean, flattened sheet metal part. The corner treatments are applied so the flat pattern is correct for manufacturing.
Corner treatments apply only in the flattened state. This is why the flat pattern geometry differs from the unfolded geometry. If you unsuppress the Flat-Pattern in the FeatureManager design tree, the geometry differs than if you use the Unfold tool to unfold the bends of a sheet metal part.
| Original model | |
| Flattened model without a corner treatment | Flattened model with a corner treatment |
To turn off corner treatments:
- In the FeatureManager design tree, right-click Flat-Pattern1, and select Edit Feature.
- In the PropertyManager, clear Corner treatment.