SOLIDWORKS Drawings: Flat Pattern Drawing View is Not Flat

This article provides troubleshooting steps to diagnose why a flat pattern drawing view is not showing the flattened state in a SOLIDWORKS drawing. In most cases, this happens because the sheet metal part file’s flat pattern configuration is not correctly flattened.

Whenever you insert a sheet metal part into a drawing, SOLIDWORKS automatically creates a derived configuration in the part file for the flat pattern. When functioning normally, this derived configuration SHOULD have the flat pattern feature unsuppressed in the part’s feature tree, however it is easy to accidentally suppress/unflatten it.

Solution

1. Open the part file in question and click the configurations tab.

2. Click the dropdown next to the active configuration and double click to activate the "SM-FLAT-PATTERN" derived configuration.

3. Ensure that the configuration is properly flattened. You can do this by either clicking the “Flatten” button, OR manually un-suppressing the Flat-Pattern feature in the feature tree. 

4. Open the drawing and refresh the view pallet to update the drawing views. 

The flat pattern drawing view should now show the correctly flattened part. 

Contact Us

If this does not work for you, or for further assistance, please contact our HawkSupport team at 877-266-4469(US) or 866-587-6803(Canada) and support@hawkridgesys.com.