PBGenie
Android app download

Shop Tools

Length — mm ⇄ inch

=
1 inch = 25.4 mm

Angle helper

Your part is overbent. Do you go Positive or Negative on the correction?
Answer the overbent question first.
Under the target = overbent. Over the target = underbent.

Force — kN · US tons · metric tonnes

1 kN = 0.1124 US tons = 0.1020 metric tonnes

Tool maximum — per length

European tooling is rated in kN/mm. Enter the rating and your bend length to get the max load that tool can take.
Enter a rating and length.

Tooling recommendation

Balances three things: thickness, the inside radius on the print, and your shortest flange. Gives a rough V — pick the closest one you own.
Enter a thickness.
Air bending makes a radius about 16% of the V in mild steel, 21% in stainless, 14% in aluminum. V stays between 5× and 10× thickness. Shortest flange has to be at least 0.7 × V to sit across the die.
Why a wider V? A bigger V-opening forms with far less force and saves your tooling — like bending a stick: nearly impossible with your hands close together, easy when they're far apart. The tooling has more leverage to bend.

K-factor — suggested

A starting K for your material and method. The neutral axis sits this fraction of the thickness in from the inside face. Override anytime.

Bend allowance / deduction

Enter angle, radius, thickness.
Radius and thickness in the same units; result matches. Angle is the bend angle (90° for a square corner).

Flat-blank length

Sum of flange lengths minus each bend's deduction = the flat to cut. Enter flanges and bends; uses the K below.
Enter flanges, bends, radius, thickness.
Flange lengths are the outside dimensions added up. Assumes 90° bends; for other angles use the Bend allowance tool per bend.

Bend layout & backgauge

Reference layout for hand-cutting flats — standard center-of-bend math. Confirm against your shop's method on a scrap piece before cutting a real part.
Enter flange lengths.
Marks are to the center of each bend, measured along the flat. Backgauge = distance from the gauged edge to that bend line (the line sits over die center). Min flange ≈ 0.67 × V.

Bump / rolling bend

Form a large radius by stepping small equal bends along the flat. Enter the radius you want and how many bumps to spread the sweep across. Standard shop geometry — prove it on a scrap piece before running a real part.
Enter radius, overall angle, and number of bumps.
Each hit turns overall ÷ bumps. Pitch is the step along the flat between hits (arc developed length ÷ bumps). Backgauge marks are centered so the facets sit even across the arc. If pitch drops below min flange (≈ 0.67 × V) the bumps are too close for that die — use fewer bumps or a narrower vee.

Tutorial

Draw the chain

Trace the profile from the edge used to gauge your 1st bend to other side. Drag any point · tap on a dot to open the bend variables· tap a line to add one bend.

Composite Measurement

Only needed when this run has two open segments. Two unknown lengths cannot be settled by the height alone — the along-the-part figure from the print pins them down.

Build this chain?

Work out a nominal

Prints often dimension to the centre of a hole or slot. Put the print nominal in and the feature diameter. PBGenie finds the edge measurement you actually measure to.
Enter the dimension and the hole size.

Feeds into

Segment end

Edit bend

Bend number is the order you bend them, not where they sit on the part. Picking one already used in this chain swaps the two; dashed numbers belong to another chain or a solo.

Gauges from is what this bend measures off. The arrow on the drawing points at it.

Flipped means the part was turned over to make this bend, compared with the first one.

Angle is what your control programs — 90 is square, 120 obtuse, 60 acute. Only needed for a composite measurement; corrections do not use it.
Bend number
Gauges from
Flipped
Angle

Send feedback

Found something broken, or want something added? This goes straight to the person who builds it.

Account

Load

Setup only keeps the bends, chains, nominals and any n/a flanges. It clears just the measured numbers, so old readings from a different machine or material don't follow you into this run.

Save Setup

Saved locally on this device. Your setup, measurements, notes, and corrections are stored so you can reopen this part later.

Saved Parts

PBGenie will do all your part math for you and was tested on all different types of bend topologies.

How to use it▼
1
Number of bends and where they gauge from (an edge, or the previous bend). You'll also set whether the part was flipped to make that bend compared to the first bend. Solo bends cannot be flipped.
2
Go down the list filling in your segments as you build it.
3
Hit Calculate and put the corrections into your press brake controller.
4
Save a successful setup with your operator notes, ready for next time.
5
Enjoy life.
New to it? Tap the ? on any step for more info or see the dedicated tutorial
Kept with the part when you save it.
1
Bends
?
▼
✕Build your chain starting at the edge your first bend uses The other end is the Other Edge. Gauge source is which direction that bend gauges: First Edge, Other Edge, Solo, or off another bend (a bend gauged off another bend inherits that bend's reference automatically). If you have to flip the part compared to the first bend in a chain, toggle Flipped. B1 is never flipped. Ignore = this bend is already good, it shows no correction and won't shift the other bends.
2
Machine position mode?
2
Solo Bends
?
▼
✕Solos are standalone flanges — a bend to a free edge, not part of a chain. Tap the bends that are solos, then enter Nominal X1 (and Nominal X2 if it's a slant) plus the two measured sides. Tick Other Side if the solo must balance against the other side it's connected to — PBGenie forms that mini-chain for you.
3
Build the Chain
?
▼
✕Walk the part from First Edge to Other Edge. Start at the First Edge, go through each bend in order, finish at the other edge.

For every segment, enter:
• Nominal — what that flange is supposed to measure.
• Actual X1 and Actual X2 — what you actually measured on the two sides.

Which side is X1? X1 and X2 are the two backgauge sides, same as your controller reads them. Pick the side that's X1 on the first bend in the chain and stay on it — that same side is Actual X1 for every segment, the opposite side is Actual X2. Don't switch partway through.

That's all you enter. PBGenie works out the rest — which bend each segment forms, which run is the overall length, and how a fix on one bend carries to the others.