When you upload your bent files for quoting, you’ll be able to view a model of it in 3D to check the angles and flange orientations. However, if your design is not previewing correctly in 3D, there could be a couple of reasons:
- Your design needs bend reliefs
Bend reliefs can help prevent bulging in the corners of your part and is required for a successful bend in some cases. Check out our blog post on designing bend reliefs to learn when to use bend reliefs and how to create them.
- The bend line doesn’t extend the full width of the part.
It’s important that the bend line you include in your design extends the full width of the part because it will otherwise be ignored by our automated processing. Our Guide to Configuring Bends In Our App can show you how to properly include bend lines in your design.
- The file is not set up correctly
There are a few factors that play into a file not being set up correctly for bending.
Common Bent File Issues:
- Incorrect bend line indicator
- Incomplete geometry (broken contours)
- Incorrect file type (e.g.- uploading a non-.ai file from Adobe Illustrator)
- File units are scaled incorrectly
Fixing Your Adobe Illustrator File:
The biggest issue we see happens when the elements in the file are disconnected and do not make a compound shape. To fix this, check out our tutorial on Setting Up Your File for Bending in Adobe Illustrator.
If you have any other questions about designing for sheet metal bending, our blog is full of tutorials and tips for bending!
