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274 CHAPTER 8 Selecting Secondary FeatureS

Tapering: This option establishes two trim planes to limit the area of the taper. The body is
larger toward one end and smaller toward the other end.
Stretching: This option establishes two trim planes to limit the area to be stretched. You can
stretch the entire body by moving the trim planes outside of the body.

Figure 8.13
The Flex feature
creating a twist

Best Practice

Flex is not the kind of feature that you should use to actually design parts, but it can be extremely
valuable when you need to show a flexible part in an “in use” state. a simple example would be a rub­
ber strap that stretches over something when it is used, but it’s designed and manufactured in its free
state. the geometry that you can create by using the flex functions is not generally production­model
quality, but it is usually adequate for a looks­like model.

The part shown in the figure can be found in the download material under the filename
Chapter 8 Flex.sldprt.