SOLIDWORKS Tutorial: 2 Ways to Flatten a Cylindrical Sheet Metal Part

Stop putting a small flat section on your part just to get it to convert to sheet metal. Flatten it by converting it using the Insert Bends command instead!

[@Hdhillon90]

Can't express how thankful I am. I am creating a sheet metal part with that exact cutout, and i could not figure out for the life of my on how to flatten it. Thanks so much!

[@lostinacrowd]

Revolve thin, but stop at 359.8° or whatever. Then you don't need to cut it with another sketch.

[@topincreible7856]

Instead of having to cut extrude, just do a revolved base of a section of the cylinder and revolve it around 359 degrees, this way you can also have tapered cylinders.

[@hyper_active_snail]

One major flaw with SW generating a flat pattern is that it is always at least x1 - x2 times the thickness shorter. In the real world, the flat patter of the cylinder is obtained by measuring length of central axis the material thickness, i.e. if you have a 3mm thick cylinder 1440id, the neutral axis diameter is 1443 which measures to have an arc of 4533mm (that's with a 0.5mm break) now, SW flat pattern generates a flat pattern with 4530mm which makes it 3mm shorter than what it will be when the sheet is cut and rolled. On a 3mm material 3mm weld gap is not the end of the world but still will require a fair amount of filling in. The problem is when you start working with thicker material and the material thickness translates the gap generated because the flat pattern is too short. Is there a way to manually or automatically inflate the the generated flat pattern length by the factor of the material thickness? Has anyone else run into this out in the real world?

[@Battlefresh]

If this is not working for you, try increasing the bend radius to the height of your cylinder. Worked for me.

[@basarkaraman788]

which is more accurate and professional ?

[@ben_r_]

Can you do this with a shape that's not a perfect circle?

[@nobodysfoultbutmine]

Thanks For the usefull video! Unfortinally when I try to select the cylinder / it's edge, I Still get the massage: "Cannot be a Bend Edge as there is a face for this edge which is non-planer" (4:20 minute in the Video). If anyone knows how to go around it or fix this issue please let me know 🙏🏼

[@NumericBees]

Great explanations, thank you. But Any way you create a round sheet metal, you can't insert a hem anywhere.

[@evilscape]

what if you want to simulate a weld between both ends, but you want to CNC cut the flat sheet metal anyway

[@muhammadrawat3818]

Thanks, this is brilliant! I find the Solidworks sheet metal tools are quite powerful, but are generally not laid out in an intuitive or logical manner - although I'm still pretty new to Solidworks. Do you know if there is a way to close this gap with the "welded corner" or similar tool. It's just for aesthetics so that he final part doesn't show gaps in it when I'm presenting.

[@muhammadzahradeen5078]

How can i use a sheet metal to make a complete closed cylinder

[@ravinderpal83]

GREAT JOB

[@dyadyavova80]

Thanks a lot, simple but very useful tutorial. It's the same in SW2018, why does it need to be so complicated and cannot be simpler and more intuitive... btw, you can make a rectangular cut-out and it works fine.

[@titelg]

You cut your line right after this cylinder. I would not want to cut him a curved line such as dovetail and we have not succeeded so far because they are beginner. If you can, please give me an idea of how I could achieve this. Thank you.

[@user-xz3ib4ld6f]

how to flatten conical extruder variable helix pleas

[@sarfarazahmad7812]

How to get the actual dimention of this flattern pattern

[@NumericBees]

Thank you for this tutorial. But... Whenever you do it one way or the other, if you have holes in your cylinder, you won't be able to size your holes in a drawing, because holes will be...folds !

[@sarfarazahmad7812]

How to get the actual length of this sheet

[@HKYT649]

Thanks!

[@rustamkhan8082]

flatten command hide in my Computer Please help.

[@manhit2086]

I try but i still can't flatten,i don't understand.

[@swc2001]

OH mUH wORD!!! THANK YOU!!!

[@PotatoGin]

thank you!

[@Zenkai76]

Thank you!

[@mayurnasit3683]

sir, how we can use forming tool on circular bending sheet?? plz guide me

[@mr.legend509]

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@ericg1610]

thanksss

[@jwkdesign2333]

didn't work