I want to take a solid model of a globe of the earth and flatten the continents in pieces to make them out of sheet metal. It doesn't have to be accurate, just a representation. I was thinking I could make flats out of segments of the solid model by first converting to a surface and then using flatten surface to get a flat pattern. I've never used surfaces and am having trouble figuring out how to get a surface from the solid model. Can someone point me in the right direction on how to do this?