I am trying to flatten a sheet metal body so I can export it as a DXF. I have been doing this for over a year, but the "bend" lines have been showing up on the flattened part lately. This makes it a pain to export as the lines have to be removed manually. See below.
Look at your DXF file save options. The lines are the start and end of the bend. If you are only doing a few, just open in draft sight and delete them.
couple things to try.
1) Go to View, Display then select Tangent edges removed.
2) Right click on the Flat-Pattern1 feature and check Merge faces under the Parameters section.
#2 worked. Thank you.
Don.
Not sure I understand your method, when you export as dxf and select "Sheet metal", tangent edges are not exported and there is option to not export bend lines. Also there is no need to flatten, the export command will do this for you
![2018-10-11 11_23_33-SOLIDWORKS Premium 2016 x64 Edition - [2UCM003823B191.SLDPRT].png](https://forum.solidworks.com/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/2-899404-442386/2018-10-11+11_23_33-SOLIDWORKS+Premium+2016+x64+Edition+-+%5B2UCM003823B191.SLDPRT%5D.png)
Didn't know that. Maybe for use in the future. I tried this and the lines were still there. The major issues with the lines is they create separate faces. Solid Air had the solution I was looking for.
But one thing I noticed is when using your technique, everything in my feature tree gets expanded, which is utterly annoying.
couple things to try.
1) Go to View, Display then select Tangent edges removed.
2) Right click on the Flat-Pattern1 feature and check Merge faces under the Parameters section.