Mark A-Face

This guide explains how to use CADshift’s A-Face feature to control which side of a sheet metal part faces up in the flat pattern DXF export.

What is A-Face?

The A-face (also called the “show side” or “mirror-finish side”) is the protected surface of a sheet metal part that must face a specific direction during manufacturing. In laser cutting and bending, knowing which side faces up determines:

• Which side gets etched or marked
• How countersink (CSK) and counterbore features appear in the DXF
• The orientation of bend lines (up vs. down)

The Mark A-Face command lets you select which face should be treated as the A-face, and CADshift will set the flat pattern’s fixed face accordingly.

Quick Start

1. Open a sheet metal part in SOLIDWORKS
2. Select a planar face on the sheet metal body
3. Right-click and choose Mark A-Face from the context menu, or click Mark A-Face in the CADshift tab

CADshift will:

• Highlight all faces on the same side in blue
• Set the flat pattern’s fixed face
• Store the A-face marking as an attribute in the part file

How It Works

Same-Side Detection

When you select a face, CADshift uses a BFS (breadth-first search) traversal to find all faces on the same side of the sheet:

• Flat faces with normals pointing in the same direction are grouped together
• Bend faces (cylindrical surfaces) are traversed through to reach flanges on the other side of bends
• Thickness faces (the narrow edge faces) are excluded
• Cylindrical holes are correctly identified and skipped (not confused with bends)

Visual Feedback

Flat Pattern Fixed Face

The A-face is set as the FixedFace2 on the flat pattern feature. This tells SOLIDWORKS which face should remain fixed when unfolding the sheet metal, controlling the orientation of the flat pattern.

Clearing the A-Face

To remove the A-face marking:

1. Click Clear A-Face in the CADshift tab
2. The attribute is removed and all face colors are reset

Effect on DXF Export

When a part has an A-face marking:

• The bend-height orientation flip is skipped — CADshift trusts your A-face selection instead of automatically flipping based on bend counts
• The flat pattern uses the A-face as the fixed face for unfolding

Context Menu Access

The Mark A-Face command is available in the right-click context menu when you select a face on a sheet metal part. This provides quick access without needing to find the command in the ribbon.

Demo

File Portability

The A-face marking is stored as a CadShiftAFace attribute inside the SOLIDWORKS part file. This means:

• The marking travels with the file when shared
• Any computer with CADshift installed can read the A-face setting
• Computers without CADshift can still open the file normally — the attribute is ignored

Requirements

• The part must contain sheet metal features
• You must select a planar face (non-planar faces are not supported)
• The face must be on a sheet metal body

Free Tier Feature

Next Steps

• Configure Layer Settings for your laser cutter
• Learn about DXF Export with custom file naming
• Explore Laser Cutting Optimization for cleaner DXF files