is this a good idea?

na not unless you have the right bend tables for that shop....then possibly yes. 

Devil's advocate on this one how would you handle revision control?  If the e-drawing in question is opened how could the "shop" validate it is the most current and not an older version of the part.

I have found prints on the floor that have the stamp "may be out of date" which is driven from someone printing a file from e-drawings for whatever reason. My point is if the DXF file is generated from an out of date e-drawing there is a lot of open areas for mistakes to be made and for the blame game to commence.

I am by no means dismissing your idea I think it is  a good one, but having been on the side of e-drawings prints being used as "actual" prints before I would urge caution.

Dan Golthing wrote:

 

What if eDrawings could display the flat patter configuration and also export the dxf flat from sheetmetal?

 

Then the shop guys w/o SWX could generate their own flat patterns when needed.

 

Hmmm....

The flat pattern (created from  SW by designer) basically is just for ref while most (or I'd say all) of the sheet metal shops will make their own flat pattern from your 3D model - So I think 2D flat pattern with dxf is good enough