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Flatten Face

In one sentence: Unrolls a conical or cylindrical face into a flat 2-D sheet, preserving arc lengths along every profile curve.

Third-party addon — installation required

The Curves workbench is not included in FreeCAD. Install it via Tools → Addon Manager → search "Curves" → Install and restart FreeCAD.

Overview

Workbench: Curves
Menu: Surfaces → Flatten Face
Command: Curves_FlattenFace

The unrolled shape has the same arc length along every profile curve as the original 3-D face. Used to generate flat patterns for sheet material that will be bent or wrapped.

Common uses

  • Flat patterns for sheet metal bent around a cylinder
  • Fabric or veneer patterns that will be wrapped onto a surface

Common mistakes and pitfalls

Only works on developable surfaces

Flatten Face requires a surface with zero Gaussian curvature (cone, cylinder, or their trimmed subsets). Attempting to flatten a doubly-curved surface (sphere, free-form NURBS) will produce distorted or incorrect results.

See also