HyperBeam Panel

Location: 1D page

The HyperBeam panel is arranged into several subpanels. Each subpanel covers a different type of beam section, except for the more general edit section and section utils (utilities) subpanels. You can move freely between subpanels. Your work on one subpanel will not be lost if you switch to a different subpanel.

Shell Section Subpanel

A thin-shell cuts through one or more separate pieces of sheet metal. When HyperBeam calculates their section properties, it uses thin-shell finite element theory.

Delete newly created beam sections using the HyperBeam module or the Model Browser's context menu.

In the background, the lines are meshed with plot elements and passed to HyperBeam. HyperBeam then uses planar thin shell theory to calculate their section properties.

A "part" is a grouping of those plot elements that share a common metal thickness.

Option	Action
entity selector	Select the lines or elements from which you wish to create a beam section. These must be in the form of a perpendicular cut through a part made of welded pieces of sheet metal or similar.
section cut	To create a shell section, cut through the selected entities at the plane location and then use the resulting section lines. Engineering Solutions centers the beam section at the centroid of the section, the shear center, or at an arbitrary point that you define. Optionally, you can create nodes at the centroid and shear center of the beam section. The section plane normal forms the beam section's local x-axis (length) and the orient vector forms the beam section's local y-axis (height). Additionally, you can assign a boundary. Engineering Solutions will crop the section lines where they cross the boundary. For shell beam section, Engineering Solutions will discard the portions of the section lines which lie outside the boundary.
merge tol =	Specify the tolerance used to determine if nodes or the ends of lines are coincident when generating the cross-section for HyperBeam.
Create node at centroid:	Create a node at the section's centroid.
Create node at Shear Center:	Create a node at the section's shear center.
part gen	Choose how the lines or elements will be sorted. part gen: auto Sort lines and elements into separate sheet metal parts. part gen: simple Force every separate line or element to be a separate sheet metal part.
cross section plane:fit to entities / project to plane	fit to entities Use the section base node switch to specify the origin to use for the system. project to plane Specify the plane to use, then use the section base node switch to specify the origin to use for the system.
section base node:	Select where to locate the section base node. This helps determine its orientation.
orientation vector:	The section is oriented normal to this vector at the specified base node. auto-orient determines the orientation automatically. Alternatively, toggle to the plane and vector selector to pick an existing vector entity, one of the default system axes, or to specify a plane to which the vector will be normal.

Solid Section Subpanel

Solid sections cut through cast or molded parts, or when the sheet metal thicknesses are so large that thin-shell theory is inappropriate. When HyperBeam calculates their section properties, it uses planar solid finite element theory.

Delete newly created beam sections using the HyperBeam module or the Model Browser's context menu.

In the background, the lines or surfaces are meshed with quad and tria elements and passed to the HyperBeam module. HyperBeam then uses planar solid finite element theory to calculate their section properties.

Option	Action
elems / lines / surfs	Select the surface, lines or elements that form the solid section. These must be in the form of a perpendicular cut through a solid part. The only elements recognized are trias and quads.
section cut	To create a solid type beam section, cut through the selected entities at the plane location and then use the resulting section lines. Engineering Solutions centers the beam section at the centroid of the section, the shear center, or at the arbitrary point that you define. Optionally, you can create nodes at the centroid and shear center of the beam section. If you are creating a solid beam section, Engineering Solutions will fill the interior of the section lines with beam section elements, as long as the section lines form one or more loops. The section plane normal forms the beam section's local x-axis (length) and the orient vector forms the beam section's local y-axis (height). Additionally, you can assign a boundary. Engineering Solutions will crop the section lines where they cross the boundary. For solid beam sections, Engineering Solutions will use the boundary in place of the portions of the section lines, which lie outside the boundary when the section is being filled in.
merge tol =	Specify the tolerance used to determine if nodes or the ends of lines are coincident when generating the cross-section for HyperBeam.
Create node at centroid:	Create a node at the section's centroid.
Create node at Shear Center:	Create a node at the section's shear center.
analysis type:	Choose the order of quads or trias used.
cross section plane:fit to entities / project to plane	fit to entities Use the section base node switch to specify the origin to use for the system. project to plane Specify the plane to use, then use the section base node switch to specify the origin to use for the system.
section base node:	Select where to locate the section base node. This helps determine its orientation.
orientation vector:	The section is oriented normal to this vector at the specified base node. auto-orient determines the orientation automatically. Alternatively, toggle to the plane and vector selector to pick an existing vector entity, one of the default system axes, or to specify a plane to which the vector will be normal.

Standard Section Subpanel

Use the Standard Section subpanel to quickly generate models using a few standard shapes such as boxes or tubes. HyperBeam uses the closed-form equations for their section properties.

Delete newly created beam sections using the HyperBeam module or the Model Browser's context menu.

HyperBeam calculates the section properties of the chosen standard section using closed-form equations.

Option	Action
standard section library:	Select the solver for which you wish to create a standard section. This determines the options available for standard section type.
standard section type:	Select the standard beamsection you wish to create. The options available depend on the solver library chosen for standard section library.

Generic Section Subpanel

Included for backward compatibility with older models. For these, you have to explicitly enter all of the necessary quantities for the section properties.

Clicking create opens a new generic section in the HyperBeam view of the Model Browser, allowing you to specify the section properties.

Edit Section Subpanel

Use the Edit Section subpanel to open the selected cross-section in HyperBeam for review or modification.

This subpanel contains only a single input: a beamsect collector. Use this to select the desired beam section, then click edit to open the selected section in the HyperBeam view of the Model Browser.

Section Utils Subpanel

Use the Section Utils subpanel to find and mark unreferenced sections, automatically connect shell sections, or position shell or solid sections.

Option	Action
(function switch)	Use the first switch on the subtab to select the type of operation you wish to perform.
beamsects	Select the beam sections that you wish to connect or position. Note: Only available when function is set to auto-connect shell sections or position shell/solid sections is selected.
tolerance =	Sections within this distance from each other will be connected. Note: Only available when function is set to auto-connect shell sections.
thickness =	Note: Only available when function is set to auto-connect shell sections.
at shear center / at centroid / translate	Select where the beam section will be repositioned. Note: Only available when function is set to position shell/solid sections.
y val =	Specify the distance to move the beam section along the Y axis. Note: Only available when function is set to position shell/solid sections and location is set to translate.
z val =	Specify the distance to move the beam section along the Z axis. Note: Only available when function is set to position shell/solid sections and location is set to translate.

Command Buttons

Button	Action
create	Create the beamsection entity based on the specified inputs.
edit	Open the selected beamsection in the HyperBeam view of the Model Browser.
save referenced	Save a list of referenced beamsections in memory for retrieval on other panels via the extended entity selection menu's retrieve option.
save unreferenced	Save a list of unreferenced beamsections in memory for retrieval on other panels via the extended entity selection menu's retrieve option.
connect	Auto-connect the specified beam sections based on the specified tolerance and thickness.
position	Reposition the specified beam sections based on the specified location inputs.
return	Exit the panel.