Flat Wrap vs Developable Surfaces — What SolidWorks Sheet Metal Can't Flatten and Where Rhino Squish Fills the Gap
A replica-aircraft builder models an FW-190 fuselage skin in SolidWorks. Lofted surface, roughly 1.2 metres long, tapering and curving in both directions. They try Flat Wrap. SolidWorks flattens a strip down the middle and nothing else. They try Flatten Surface. It runs, produces a shape that’s 30% larger than the original, and when they cut aluminium to the pattern and try to form it, the edges don’t align by inches. ...