SolidWorks 2012 Features - Vol I

You can create compound bends in sheet metal parts using the Swept Flange tool.

The Swept Flange tool is similar to the Sweep tool; you need a profile and path to create the flange. So there are going to be two sketches one consisting of path and the other consisting of profile.

Command	:	Swept Flange (New in SolidWorks 2012)
Location	:	Click Swept Flange on the Sheet Metal toolbar, or click Insert, Sheet Metal, Swept Flange

To create a swept flange, you need an open sketch as the profile, and an open profile path or a series of existing edges in a sheet metal part. Any cuts, holes, chamfers, or fillets on the bend region of the swept flange do not appear in the flat pattern.

To start with we have created a simple Sheet Metal shape shown below using the Base Flange/Tab command from the sheet metal toolbar.

Now we start creating another sketch which is our profile as shown below. In this case the face has been selected as sketch plane.

Note: The start point of the path must lie on the plane of the profile.

Now we start creating the profile we want to use for Swept flange command as shown below

Now as shown below we exit sketch and as seen in the feature tree there is a sketch created (Profile) and in this case we are going to use the edges of the Base-Flange as our path.

Now we use the Swept Flange command and select the sketch as our profile and the edges as our path as shown below.

The final part with Swept Flange is shown below along with its Flatten state.