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      <title>Flat pattern overview</title>
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      <div class="title_topic2" id="xps10_pagetitle">Flat pattern overview</div>
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      <p class="para_topic">You can choose the function <b class="uiTerm">Tools&rarr;Flat Pattern</b> any time while in the Sheet Metal Features and Forming/Flattening program. You may generate a flat pattern on any surface, regardless of whether it has sheet metal features associated with it. If you select sheet bodies, the thickness of the material is set to zero. This means that the default BAF used by <b class="uiTerm">Flat Pattern</b> does not affect the output.
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      <p class="para_topic">You can flatten some sheet metal parts in multiple ways. For these situations, you can control the generation of the flat pattern through the <b class="uiTerm">Layout Options</b> portion of the <b class="uiTerm">Flat Pattern</b> dialog box. These options allow you to specify what faces you want flattened, and how they are to be flattened. <b class="uiTerm">Layout Options</b> also allow you to change the starting position and orientation, specify edges to use for cutting and specify additional curves and points to map to the flat pattern.
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      <p class="para_topic">An automatic flat pattern generation activates when you enter <b class="uiTerm">Flat Pattern</b> and select a starting face, allowing you to create a flat pattern with only a few operations.
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      <p class="para_topic">If you want to create a flat pattern on a body, the solid geometry must be properly connected by either relative positioning or boolean operations, and should not be ambiguous in the configuration of the body.</p>
      <p class="para_topic">The options under <b class="uiTerm">Preferences&rarr;Flat Pattern</b> allow greater flexibility for orientation and output objects.
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      <p class="para_topic">Since a flat pattern is a NX group entity, it is selectable as such, and you can use it with any NX function that can manipulate wireframe geometry.</p>
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                  <p class="para_note_body">You can manipulate the flat pattern group in the same way as any group entity (for example, in selection). However, if the flat pattern group is deleted then the curves in the group are also deleted.</p>
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      <p class="para_topic">An Information option is also available, which lists information about the flat pattern for a selected body.</p>
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