Trim Bend Lines

Bend-line trimming turns each full-length bend line into two short stubs, one at each end. The press-brake operator still sees exactly where the fold goes, but the laser only marks two little ticks instead of scoring a line all the way across the part.

It’s a setting in your Output Profile, so once you set it up every export uses it.

Full vs trimmed

Full:      |←————————————————————→|

Trimmed:   |←→|                |←→|
          stub                stub

Where to set it

1. Export and click the green check to open the DXF Export Preview window.
2. Click the gear button next to the Profile drop-down (Edit DXF output profiles).
3. In the editor, click Bend lines in the left list. (If it’s a built-in profile, Clone it first.)

You’ll see:

• Flip flat pattern so most up-bends face up — mirrors the flat so the majority of bends point up (free).
• Trim bend lines — the master switch (Professional). Turn it on to reveal:
  • Up and Down — choose which bend directions get trimmed.
  • Trim length — the stub length kept at each end.

Choosing a stub length

A good rule of thumb: about 5–10% of the bend length, with a 3 mm minimum so the stubs stay visible.

Up vs down bends

Bends have a direction — up folds toward you, down folds away. You can trim one or both. A common setup is to put up and down bends on different layers with different colours (in the profile’s Layers grid) so the operator can tell fold directions apart at a glance.

Troubleshooting

Next steps

• Name and colour the bend-line layers — Layer Configuration
• Label each bend with fold data — DXF Output Profiles → Bend annotations
• Clean up nested loops for the laser — Laser Cutting Optimization