Quite a few comments have been made about how incredible it is that Inventor still does not have a functional normal cut option for sheet metal like Solidworks and Solidedge have long had and I agree. I realize that there are the standard workflows like using derive and thicken to get around this problem. However, for those interested, there is a way to make a normal cut (for laser/cnc) directly in the sheet metal part in many cases. It involves using a sketch to split a face and then using the resulting profile for a thicken/cut feature. The attached images illustrate somewhat. I'm always interested in any other methods out there for obtaining normal cuts in complex sheet metal (for a clean dxf export). By the way, Autodesk, do you actually not have any plans of ever adding functionality in this area?
Inventor 2013
This is my method, although many here seem to shy away from it.
Yes, that will result in a true sheet metal cut as well and its a good way to get true round cutouts in the flat layout, but if you want a true round in the rolled part (to insert a pipe, etc.) you can't get there that way. Thanks for your reply.
i JUST GO TO THE FLAT PATTERN AND EXTRUDE THE EXCESS MATERIAL OUT.