Tech Tip: SOLIDWORKS 2015 Tutorial - Flattening Surfaces

I think my favorite new feature of this 2015 release of SolidWorks is definitely the Flatten Surface functionality.
Over the years I have had plenty of opportunities where this function would have directly saved customers a ton of time, money and effort in attempting to fit complex copings and forms together.
With a complex cut of this nature, you can simply: model it....flatten it.... print it....chalk it....and cut it!

[@alexandrereis3105]

FINALLY AND THANK YOU

[@dickskinthin9192]

I Googled "how to flatten someone's face" because there's this bully at school who I need to deal with and THIS is what I get?! Thanks for nothing Google! 🤬

[@mahmoodmaroofi4243]

thank you so much, it is useful

[@5Metalman5]

yes, but it is a Premium License feature only. Keep that in mind.

[@cameronnielsen6483]

Premium only, huh? Wow. Way to get designers to buy all the engineering crap they don't need, eh?

[@fevergeonm]

okay so how do you get you surface to have the line on it to flatten from? i can't seem to manage that for the life of me using surface extrudes, or solid extrudes.

[@robertkaspersr.1582]

Well since I also wanted to know and I also do most of my work when tech is closed I will provide this. You have to create a split in the part. Start at the center and make a pie slice cut. You need to work from the end face of the tube and make it lengthwise. I made mine .010 wide (smaller should even work) with the lines extended beyond the outer diameter. Once cut what he shows will work. Had me scratching my head also as it looks like a simple line but isnt. I also just tried for my own info to use a rectangle instead of a pie slice and setting it at .005 for the width it also worked and allowed me to grab the surface and flatten it. Hope this helps. The videos are awesome and I am self taught with a little help from tech. I use a different reseller then who produced the vid and they provide great and more importantly easy access to tech.

[@timsvideos5771]

@@robertkaspersr.1582 He made it so easy but didn't show you how he split only one side of the tube. Thanks for clearing that up.

[@jdaniel9622]

Why does this feature get ride of my through holes when I flatten!@@robertkaspersr.1582

[@richoz27]

How do you do this in 2013? Im not going to fork out 1000's to upgrade just so I can cope 2 curved tubes...

[@LvtLoshi]

Hi, is there a way to then flatten the face of the extruded object?

[@raulcantu6998]

How do you unflatten it??

[@northwind97]

solid3dtech also has unfolding function.