Part VII: Working with Specialized Functionality
Bend Allowance
You can control the Bend Allowance by using one of four options:l Bend Tablel (^) K-Factor
l Bend Allowance
l (^) Bend Deduction
Bend Table
Two general types of Bend Tables are available, text-based and Excel-based. The first few rows of
each type of table are shown in Figure 29.5. Each table can use K-Factor, Bend Allowance, or Bend
Deduction.
FIGURE 29.5
Sample text- and Excel-based Bend Tables
Sample Bend Tables can be found in the lang\english\Sheetmetal Bend Tables subdirec-
tory of the SolidWorks installation directory. While the values may not be what you need, the syn-
tax and organization is correct. You may want to contact your sheet metal fabrication shop to see
what they are using for a table or equations.
Note
Data from gauge tables and bend tables have been consolidated, but both legacy types can still be read. n
K-Factor
When sheet metal is formed from a flat sheet, bending the metal causes it to stretch slightly on the
outside part of the bend, and to compress slightly on the inside part of the bend. Somewhere
across the thickness of the sheet is the Neutral Plane, where there is no stretching or compression.