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      <title>Convert a solid model to a sheet metal part</title>
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      <div class="title_topic4" id="xps10_pagetitle">Convert a solid model to a sheet metal part</div>
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            <col span="1" width="305*">
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                  <p class="para_td"><a class="links" href="javascript:void(0)" onclick="top.openFile('nx_sheet_metal/conv_to_shmtl_over.html');return(false);">Overview</a></p>
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                  <p class="para_td">How To</p>
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                  <p class="para_td"><a class="links" href="javascript:void(0)" onclick="top.openFile('nx_sheet_metal/conv_to_shmtl_options.html');return(false);">Options</a></p>
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            <p class="para_item">Click <b class="uiTerm">Convert to Sheetmetal</b> <img align="bottom" src="graphics/conv_to_shmtl_ico.gif" border="0">.
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            <p class="para_item">Select the part you want to convert.</p>
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            <p class="para_item">Select a planar base face&nbsp;<img align="bottom" src="graphics/convert_select_face_icon.gif" border="0"> (preferably one that has tangent continuity with the other faces in the model, or that will have after you rip edges).
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            <p class="para_item">Select the edges that you want to rip&nbsp;<img align="bottom" src="graphics/convert_select_edge_icon.gif" border="0">.
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            <p class="para_item"><img align="bottom" src="graphics/convert_edges.gif" border="0"></p>
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            <p class="para_item">Click <b class="uiTerm">OK</b> to complete the conversion.
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            <p class="para_item"><img align="bottom" src="graphics/converted_block.gif" border="0"></p>
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            <td valign="top" align="left"><img align="left" src="../graphics/note.gif" alt="Note" title="Note"></td>
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                  <p class="para_note_body"> If you unbend or flatten a part and then use <b class="uiTerm">Convert to Sheetmetal</b>, you cannot rebend the areas that were previously unbent.
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      <div class="title_division">Tips and techniques for using Convert to Sheetmetal</div>
      <p class="para_division">Successful conversion of a model into sheet metal largely depends on the topology of the part and the base (seed) face you select. A face that has tangent continuity with other faces in the model gives better results after conversion. You can use the edge-rip option to achieve tangent continuous faces.</p>
      <p class="para_division">For example, in the part shown below, the red faces can never be tangent continuous to each other. The green faces are tangent continuous to rest of the body, but not to the corners of the box. So, after selecting a green face as the base, you would select edges to rip that make the remaining body also tangent continuous (in this case, the back corner edges).</p>
      <p class="para_division"><img align="bottom" src="graphics/convert_tangent1b.gif" border="0"></p>
      <p class="para_division">The following graphic shows the part after conversion. Note that picking a red face as the base face wouldn't have produced as good a conversion.</p>
      <p class="para_division"><img align="bottom" src="graphics/convert_tangent.gif" border="0"></p>
      <p class="para_division">Here's another example of a part where the selecting a red face as the base face wouldn't produce a good conversion.</p>
      <p class="para_division"><img align="bottom" src="graphics/convert_tangent2.gif" border="0"></p>
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