Sheet-metal guides
The parts of sheet-metal design that are not obvious until a shop sends your part back. Written from building real outsourced parts, not from a textbook.
How a sheet-metal flat pattern is calculated
Why a folded part needs less material than its outside dimensions suggest, and how bend allowance and bend deduction turn a 3D part into a strip you can cut.
What the K-factor actually is
The neutral axis, why it moves toward the inside of a bend, and how one measured coupon replaces every table you will find online.
Preparing a DXF for laser cutting
Closed contours, layer conventions, units, splines and duplicate lines — the things that get a file bounced back by the cutting shop.
DXF or STEP: which to send for a quote
Why quoting portals prefer a folded 3D solid, when a flat DXF is still the right answer, and what goes wrong when you send the wrong one.
Or just start drawing
The editor applies all of this automatically — draw the flat pattern, add bends, and export what the shop needs.
Open the editor