Sheet metal designers will be excited to learn that Base Flange features have received an upgrade to start or “From” conditions as part of SOLIDWORKS 2026, making them easier to use and more effective for advanced multibody design and master modeling applications. Our latest 2-Minute Tech Tip covers everything you need to know.
Surface/Face/Plane condition being used to start a Base Flange from another surface
You can now start a Base Flange using Surface/Face/Plane, Vertex, or Offset options, whereas previous versions were limited to starting the feature at the sketch plane. This makes positioning of Base Flanges easier even in simple scenarios, since you can now quickly reference another entity or input an offset value for positioning rather than creating a new sketch or reference plane.
However, this enhancement has important applications in multibody design as well. Using an imported cabinet model as an example, we show how master sketches can now be reused to create multiple separate sheet metal bodies, saving time while enabling powerful design intent unavailable in previous versions.
Two base flange features sharing the same sketch and updating simultaneously
These new options for Base Flange features reduce setup steps even for simple sheet metal designs while enabling more advanced design intent in master-model and multibody parts. This is just one of many enhancements included this year – For more information on what’s new for sketches, features, parts, assemblies, drawings, and more, be sure to visit our What’s New in SOLIDWORKS 2026 series.
