Working with Sheet Metal Parts - Inventor 2013 and Inventor LT 2013 Essentials - page 241

even more. For sheet metal, it's important to document not only the folded part
but also the flat part, and being able to communicate the process for forming it
is a great benefit.
Establishing the Process
In the design phase, the flanges, bends, and faces of the part can be built in any
particular order. That's not true for producing the part. Inventor has the ability
to specify the order in which you want folds to be made in the solid model. The
order you specify can then be accessed in the drawing.
1. Verify that the 2013 Essentials project file is active, and then open
c10-12.ipt from the Parts/Chapter​10 folder.
2. Activate the flat pattern in the model.
3. Start the Bend Order Annotation tool from the marking menu or the
Manage panel of the Flat Pattern tab.
The flat pattern will display numbers that represent the order in
which the part would be folded.
4. Click the balloon with the number 6.
5. When the Bend Order Edit dialog box appears, select the Bend Number
check box, and change the value to 1. Leave the Unique Number option
selected, and click OK.
This will change the number and the icon to identify it as an override.
6. Change the balloon for 9 to 3, and click OK, as shown in Figure 10.28.
FIGURE 10.28 Like BOM data in the assembly,
bend order information is kept in the part file.