When working with the SOLIDWORKS Sheet Metal tool, users commonly encounter two workflow mistakes:
- Suppressing/Unsuppressing the Flat Pattern directly from the feature manager design tree.
- Not seeing the bend lines in the drawing.
The solution to this is in the workflow:
1. Instead of suppressing or unsuppressing the Flat Pattern feature directly in the FeatureManager Design Tree, use the Flatten button on the Sheet Metal tab.
Unflattened:
Flattened:
SOLIDWORKS automatically creates a Flat Pattern configuration when you create a drawing of the part. This eases the process of selecting and deselecting "Flatten" as everything is captured within a configuration. Furthermore, the Flat Pattern configuration captures the bend lines automatically which simplifies the annotation process significantly.
If the flat pattern is not shown within the view palette, you need to correct the flat pattern configuration. This occurs usually due to the Flatten function being used within this configuration.
To correct this, select the Flat Pattern configuration and toggle the Flatten button until the part is fully flattened and the Flatten option is greyed out.
Refreshing the view palette, will enable the flat pattern view.
2. There are two common reasons for not seeing the bend lines within the flat pattern view:
- The first ties to the flat pattern view as discussed in point 1, and it is due to the fact that the flat pattern configuration is not correct. Correcting this will solve the problem.
- The second ties to the settings within SOLIDWORKS.
These can be accessed via the View tab > Hide/Show > Bend Lines.
Alternatively the bend lines can be selected/de-selected from within the Property Manager when inserting the Flat Pattern view.
Date: 22/04/2022