Cutouts in sheet metal environment - how to?

[Matthz]

I'm designing a electronics enclosure and I need to project a sketch onto a metal sheet, so it folds correctly when flattened. 

Not sure about the proper workflow to follow: should I start with a flat body, do all the cutouts and in the end convert to flat sheet and export as dxf/dwg?

I need to project the sketch onto that metal sheet folding properly around the top and bottom sides.

Please let me know what is the correct way to do this.

Thanks.

[g-andresen]

Hi,
please show how a real existing object looks like.

günther

[HughesTooling · Accepted solution]

Is the part in your design already a sheetmetal part or have you just modeled a U shape? If it's a sheetmetal part, just unfold using the bottom of the U as the stationary face. If it's not a sheetmetal part you can still go to the sheermetal tab and convert the part as long as you have a constant thickness. After unfold, extrude cut your shape then refold.

Have you done the tutorials on sheetmetal? Also help on convert to sheetmetal part.

Mark