Plate bending by line-heating can be considered as a process in which plates are bent to the three dimensional form by the plastic strain caused during the gas heating and the water cooling. Therefor, the plan making for this process can be separated into two parts. The first part is to decide what type and how much plastic strain should be given in which part of the plate. The second part is to find what is the proper heating and cooling condition to get the desired plastic strain. The authors investigated the relation between the final form of the plate and the plastic strain or the inherent strain to be given for the plate bending. For this purpose, the Finite Element Method is employed. Based on the knowledge obtained through the analysis, a method to determine the part of the plate to be heated and the magnitude of the required inherent strain is proposed.