Element Based Surface: Adjust Normal Tab

In the Adjust Normal tab, you can display and reverse normal direction for surfaces defined on 3D shell, membrane, rigid and 2D beam, pipe, and truss elements.

For these elements, the normal directions are used to define the SPOS or SNEG face identifiers. In Engineering Solutions, surfaces can be displayed in two ways: by special face elements or by contactsurfaces. The surfaces defined on 3D shell, membrane, rigid elements are displayed by face elements while surfaces on 2D beam, pipe, and truss elements are displayed by contactsurfaces. The normal directions of the contactsurfaces are part of their display. However, the normal directions of the faces have to be turned on for displaying. Use the Display normals checkbox to display the normals of the faces. Use the Size: entry box to define the size of the normals before selecting the Display normals checkbox.

Note: 3D solid and gasket elements are also displayed by face elements. But, the normal direction do not have any meaning for them.

There are two options for reversing normals: (a) Reverse all normals at a time, (b) Reverse normals by individual faces or contactsurfaces.

(a) Reverse normal all

Table 1.
Button	Action
Reverse	Reverses normals of all faces for 3D shell, membrane, rigid elements and all contactsurfaces for 2D beam, pipe, truss elements in the current surface. Note: The normals of the underlying elements are not reversed. It reverses the normals of the faces or contactsurfaces only.

(b) Reverse normals: By element

Table 2.
Button	Action
Element faces	Opens the Element Selector panel. For 3D shell, membrane, rigid elements, pick the faces (not the underlying elements). However, for 2D beam, pipe, truss elements, pick the elements themselves as the contactsurfaces can not be picked from the graphic area. The corresponding Reset button resets the selected elements.
Reverse	Reverses normals of the selected faces for 3D shell, membrane, rigid elements and contactsurfaces of the selected 2D beam, pipe, truss elements. Note: The normals of the underlying elements are not reversed. It reverses the normals of the faces or contactsurfaces only.

Element Based Surface: Delete Face Tab

Use the Delete Face tab to delete faces or contactsurface from all elements types.

Surfaces can be displayed in two ways: by special face elements or by contactsurfaces. The surfaces defined on 3D solid, gasket, shell, membrane, rigid elements are displayed by face elements while surfaces on 2D solid, axisymmetric, gasket and all beam, pipe, truss elements are displayed by contactsurfaces.

This tab contains tools to find and delete duplicate faces for 3D solid, gasket, shell, membrane, or rigid elements.

There are three options for deletion.

(a) All

Table 3.
Button	Action
Delete	Deletes all the faces or contactsurfaces in the current surface.

(b) By element

Table 4.
Button	Action
Element Faces	Opens the Element Selector panel. For 3D solid, gasket, shell, membrane, and rigid elements, pick the faces (not the underlying elements). However, for 2D solid, axisymmetric, gasket or all beam, pipe, truss elements, pick the elements themselves as the contactsurfaces can not be picked from the graphic area. The corresponding Reset button resets the selected elements.
Delete	Deletes the selected faces or contactsurfaces from the selected 2D solid, axisymmetric, gasket, beam, pipe, truss elements.

(c) Duplicate faces

Table 5.
Button	Action
Find Duplicate Faces	Finds duplicate faces, if any exists, for the current surface and highlights them in the graphic area. The status bar shows the number of duplicates found. The corresponding Reset button resets the selected elements.
Delete	Deletes the highlighted duplicate faces found. Note: Duplicate contactsurfaces cannot be added to the same surface in Engineering Solutions. Therefore, Duplicate Faces is only valid for 3D solid, gasket, shell, membrane, and rigid elements.