Showing Tangent Bend Lines in your flat pattern

By default, Solidworks will attempt to show Tangent Bend lines in your sheet metal part. This is for practical reasons so that you can see when your sheet metal bend begins and ends.

However, when the flat pattern of your model is shown, Solidworks will by default NOT show any of those tangent edges:

Since your piece of sheet metal, before being bent, won’t have any actual tangent or bend lines in it, Solidworks defaults to hiding those edges to give you a better idea of what your part will look like before you begin your bending and forming operations on it.

There may be times, however, when you DO wish to show those edges in the flat pattern. This can be down by following the following steps:

1. Edit your flat pattern by right clicking on the “Flat-Pattern” feature and clicking “Edit Feature”

2. Uncheck the “Merge Faces” checkbox

3. Your flat pattern should no longer just be one face and should show
    distinct faces for your bends and flat faces

Now these tangent bend lines will appear in the 3D model and also any drawing views of your flat pattern.

If you’re having trouble showing or hiding these tangent edges in your flat pattern, feel free to call Hawk Ridge Systems Technical Support at 877.266.4469 (US) or 866.587.6803 (Canada) or send us an email at support@hawkridgesys.com.