About Cuts on Sheet Metal Face or Bend

A cut removes material from a sheet metal face.

You sketch a profile on a sheet metal face, and then cut through (or partially through) one or more faces. You can use iFeatures to create a library of punch shapes for sheet metal parts. You can use cut features with the iFeature, Mirror, and Pattern commands.

You can specify a distance for a cut, or it can terminate on a face or work plane. In an assembly, the terminating face or work plane can be on another part. You can express the specified distance as a percentage of the material thickness.

You apply a cut on a sketch of a profile that represents the shape of the material you want to remove. If there is only one profile in the sketch, it is automatically highlighted after you click Cut.

There are two options for cuts on sheet metal:

• Cut Normal. Projects the selected profiles (sketch, and so on) onto the surface and then cuts perpendicular to the faces that the projection intersects.
• Cut Across Bend. Removes material by wrapping the profile across faces and one or more sheet metal bends. Cut Across Bend creates a through or partial-depth cut that wraps around the bend. You can select and extract a cut across a bend to a punch iFeature. Then you can use the punch iFeature. Cut Across Bend applies the cut to the faces and bends located under the sketch while the part is in a flattened state. The cut depth is through the material.