Putting toolpaths on a sheetmetal part in Inventor

"How do i take this sheetmetal part, flatten it and put some toolpaths on it to send to my machine?"

Have you ever asked this question when using Inventor and HSM?  Well, today we will look at how to do this.

Now, you might think...man it can't be that hard; just hit the flat pattern button and start programming.  This process doesn't work because by clicking the flat pattern button you are basically just creating an imagine of the part flattened and doesn't offer an actual solid body to program from.
So we say...

NO to Flat Pattern!

Instead what we will use are the Unfold and Refold operations.

Let's start with Unfold:
click on the button to start it.
First we pick the face that we would want to stay stationary and everything unfolds from this.
next, (red arrow) we pick the all bends button.
Then click the OK button.

Now, at this point you can create a setup and program toolpaths and post code.  once you are done click the button for Refold.
you will follow the same steps as you did with the unfold picking the stationary face and then all bends.  if you add cut features be sure to add above the unfold so that when you need to update the toolpaths you can just drag the end of part under the unfold and update toolpaths or add new ones and then repost out code.

Hope this is helpful!
Happy Programming!