Adjusting Bends

You may need to make a part with bends such that a certain dimension is met after the bend occurs. You can do this easily using the technique shown below.

For example, suppose we design two parallel bends on a rectangular metal sheet to create a U shape and we want the outside distance across the U to be 1". The example below shows how to do this with each step corresponding to the respective numbered drawing.

1. Place the bend lines 1" apart, knowing full well that it's not quite that simple.
2. Choose Job | Model Bends and move the computed bend model tangent to the leftmost bend line.
3. Create the small "adjustment" rectangle to measure the error by placing it between the rightmost bend line and the rightmost edge of the U shaped bend model. Note that the horizontal size of the adjustment rectangle represents how much the outside of the U shape exceeds the desired 1".
4. Remove the bend model and flip the adjustment rectangle to the other side of the bend line.
5. Move the right bend line to the other side of the adjustment rectangle. Then rerun the Job | Model Bends command and move the model into place to verify that the outside touches the right edge of the adjustment rectangle. Additionally check the numeric bar to verify that the horizontal size of the bend model is exactly 1". (Notice that one leg of the U is now longer than the other. This is easily corrected by drawing a horizontal line from the other leg and applying the intersect command. Also note that the same technique, with minor variation, can be used to target a specific length of each leg.)