The new 3D Interconnect functionality introduced in SOLIDWORKS 2017 is useful when working with a variety of native non-SOLIDWORKS files, including parts that are sheet metal in nature.
A Note On Methodology
There are a few ways to add sheet metal information to a part referencing an external file. The trick when using 3D Interconnect is to add bends specifically using the Convert To Sheet Metal feature. Yes, the Add Bends feature will work initially. However, if a new version of the part comes along that changes more than the part thickness, the update will not work.
Now that we have the preliminaries out of the way, I present the method I’ve discovered to use SOLIDWORKS 3D Interconnect with sheet metal parts. If you try it, I’d love to hear how this method worked out for you.
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