Writes the bend data in the Solid Edge sheet metal document to the .dxf file.

In order for sheet metal press brake machines to bend a part automatically, complete bend information is required for the part. If the transmit file used between Solid Edge and the bend software is in a DXF format, Solid Edge writes all appropriate bend information, including any custom data specified by the user, to the file in the extended data format.

Even though the DXF file specification requires data in a certain order, the extend data is order independent. Systems reading a Solid Edge DXF file only need to look for certain keywords to extract the necessary bend data.

In the basic format for a Solid Edge DXF file bend lines are written to the DXF file. Immediately after each bend line, the data for the bend such as direction, angle, and thickness is written. Systems reading this information simply look for certain keywords and parse the data to get the value. Some redundant data is written to each bend line and can be omitted. For example, the material thickness is constant throughout the file, but is written to each and every bend line.

Since there is no set standard for how this data is to be written, nor are there independent flavors of DXF files specific to any system, Solid Edge allows you to control the names of the keywords being written. It is expected that you obtain the correct keyword names and enter them into a dialog during the Solid Edge flat pattern DXF export. If the bend software is always looking for BEND_ANGLE: 90, Solid Edge will write the data in that format and provide the user specified the keyword = “BEND_ANGLE:”. Other bending software may want a bend angle written as BENDANGLE=90, Solid Edge will accommodate that as well.