Flat pattern giving profile in the wrong plane

Flat pattern giving profile in the wrong plane

aloefarming
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Message 1 of 4

Flat pattern giving profile in the wrong plane

aloefarming
Observer
Observer

Hello.  I've drawn a component which is flat, only in one plane, which I want to get a dxf from for laser cutting.  In the past if I've had a component like this I've converted it to sheet metal, the program infers the thickness, then I've converted to a flat pattern and taken my dxf from that.  Now when I try to do it, I select the stationary face with all the features on it like I always have, then convert to a flat pattern and it just gives me a view of the side of the component, in this case a 20mm rectangle as the component is 20mm thick.  I can pan the image around an it will show me the view I want cut, although it is elongated and not as I drew it originally.  When I open the dxf I created it just has the edge on view and doesn't show the features I need cut.

I've tried drawing it in all the different drawing planes and no different.  Not doing anything different to what I've done in the past.  My file is saved below.

Thanks in advance for any help

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Message 2 of 4

Warmingup1953
Advisor
Advisor

No need to convert to a Sheetmetal Body simply use or create a Sketch that has the geometry neededsketch.PNG

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Message 3 of 4

aloefarming
Observer
Observer
Yep, that’s what I ended up doing in this case, but how would I do it in the case where a the job has dozens of components and I want to pull a component out of that for laser cutting, considering that component might have had 20 or more sketches on it to get to its final form?
Thanks
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Message 4 of 4

Warmingup1953
Advisor
Advisor

If it is JUST for 2d Laser or plasma cutting I can recommend a Free Add-in DXF for Laser that simply creates "perfect" .dxf files from planar faces of solid bodies...and it cleans up after itself (switchable) so your Timeline is not affected. It's in the App store and it's free! (dxf created this way attached)(Better still it also picks up the Body name to name the dxf).dxf4LLaser.PNG

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