SolidWorks Tips & Tricks

Use a Miter Flange Instead of a Hem!
Sometimes when you want to place a hem on two or more edges of a part, the Miter Flange command will make your life easier. While it may not let you use as small of a radius as you want (we all think we can bend zero radius, but we can’t) the ease of use and control is so much better.

Take a look at my example. If I used the Hem feature, I would be constantly looking for interference at the corners. The Miter Flange handles this for me. It even provides the Gap value to let me adjust the space between the two adjacent hems.

To create the hem using the Miter Flange, select the end of the first edge as the start location. Then sketch an arc using the three point method. Lock in the 180 degree angle as you do this. Next, sketch a line from the end point of the arc. You can add a point at the top of the arc for dimension purposes or just drag the dimension endpoint to the outside of the arc, as shown.

Dimension the arc first, followed by the end of the line up to the point at the top of the arc. Don’t forget to account for the material thickness as you do this. You may want to add an equation to automatically update it should the material thickness change in the future.

Adjust the Gap if needed, and don’t forget that the Start/End Offsets are available if you want to use them too.

To learn more about sheet metal part creation, click here.

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