Building the geometry for a thermal model with Patran is nearly identical to the procedure that is used to build a structural model, and in many cases the geometry can be shared between these two applications. As in other Patran applications, geometry can be directly accessed through Working with Files (Ch. 4) in the Patran Reference Manual (SGM), or created with the Create Actions (Ch. 4) in the Geometry Modeling - Reference Manual Part 2. Besides the part being modeled, occasionally additional geometry is required in the thermal model to represent the advection and hydraulics network, or for use in specifying symmetry planes for the Viewfactor code.