Sheet metal

1. File, New sheet metal. Choose who makes it, the metal and its thickness. Press OK.
2. Sketch the flat profile on the ground. Press Finish Sketch.
3. Flange turns the profile into a sheet.
4. Edge Flange bends walls up from its edges.
5. Cut holes and slots with Cut or Hole, both in Modify.
6. Flat Pattern shows it laid flat and downloads the DXF for the shop.

Making the sheet

Flange

Makes the sheet: a flat sheet from a closed profile, or a bent strip along an open line.

1. Click Flange.
2. Click the profile in the sketch.
3. Made by: SendCutSend, or My own numbers to type the thickness, bend size and K-factor yourself.
4. Choose the material and the thickness.
5. Choose how corners are relieved. Trim to bend suits most parts.
6. Press OK.

Edge Flange

Bends a wall up from a straight edge of the sheet.

1. Click Edge Flange.
2. Click the straight edges to bend walls from.
3. Type the height and the angle.
4. Height datum: from the outer faces, the inner faces, or the bend's outside (Tangent to bend). Bend position: where the wall stands from the edge: Inside (the edge is the box's outside), Outside (the edge is its inside), Adjacent (the bend starts at the edge), Tangent (the bend's outside on the edge).
5. Miter corners: walls that meet at a corner run into it and stop one gap apart.
6. Width: the full edge, or part of it.
7. Press OK.

A step that adds solid material, such as Extrude set to Join, ends the sheet. Flange and Edge Flange then say so.

Cut

Cuts a sketch profile out of the sheet: a slot, a window, a shaped hole.

1. Sketch the shape on the sheet and finish the sketch.
2. Click Cut.
3. Click the profile.
4. Choose Through All, or type how far.
5. Press OK.

Corner Relief

Changes the cut-out where two bends meet at a corner.

1. Open Modify and click Corner Relief.
2. Click an edge at each corner to change.
3. Choose round, square, tear, trim to bend, linear weld, arc weld or laser weld. A round sits where the bend lines cross or touching both walls; give its width.
4. Press OK.

Unfold

Lays the sheet flat as a step, so you can draw and cut on the flat. A hole drawn across a bend is the shape you drew in the flat pattern, with its sides square to the sheet.

1. Click Unfold and press OK.
2. Sketch on the flat sheet and cut through it with Cut or Hole.
3. Click Refold and press OK.

While the sheet is unfolded, Edge Flange, Corner Relief, Mirror and Flat Pattern wait for the Refold. A cut made on the folded part goes straight through the sheet wherever it meets it.

Refold

Bends an unfolded sheet back, with what you cut while it lay flat.

1. Click Refold.
2. Press OK.

Getting it made

Flat Pattern

Shows the sheet laid flat, with its bend lines, and downloads it as a DXF.

1. Click Flat Pattern.
2. Read the size, number of bends, metal, thickness, bend size and area.
3. Press Download DXF for the file the shop cuts.
4. Press Close to go back to the folded part.

Shop check

Happens by itself after every change. Anything the shop cannot make, such as a hole too close to a bend, a hole too small or a flange too short, turns red on the part and is listed in a box in the corner of the view, in the shop's own numbers. With My own numbers there is no shop to check against, so nothing is checked.