A new approach for the automatic elimination of free edges in the finite element model for the analysis of sheet metal forming processes is presented. In general, the raw finite element model constructed from an automatic mesh generator is not well suited for the direct use in the downstream forming analysis due to the many free edges which requires tedious time consuming interactive graphic operations of the users. In the present study, a general method for the automatic elimination of free edges is proposed by introducing a CAD/CAE hybrid method. In the method a trimmed parametric surface is generated to fill the holes which are orginated from the free edges by using the one step elastic finite element analysis. In addition, mesh generation algorithm is suggested which can be used in the general trimmed surface. In order to verify the validity of the proposed method, various examples including actual automobile sheet metal parts are given and discussed.