Multi-Body

A Reddit post asking about converting solid bodies to individual part files got 77 upvotes. The top comment pointed to Insert → Features → Save Bodies — and multiple replies said they’d never heard of it despite years of SolidWorks use. CSWP holders included. This is not a niche feature. It’s the correct way to extract individual part files from a multi-body part, and it does things that Insert into New Part and manual workflows cannot match. ...

The checkbox that lies to you Open a multi-body sheet metal part in SolidWorks and try to export DXF. File → Save As → DXF → Options. The “Export multiple flat patterns to single file” checkbox is greyed out. So is the standard “Flat Pattern” export mode. The dialog offers you geometry, hidden lines, and sketches — everything except what you actually need. This catches shops transitioning from separate-part workflows to multi-body assembly files. The multi-body approach makes sense for welded sheet metal assemblies: fewer files, shared reference sketches between bodies, no insert-part reference chains that break when you rename anything. But the DXF export dialog treats the whole assembly as one thing and can’t figure out which flat pattern to export. ...