Perform Extended Entity Selection

Use extended entity selection to find, filter, and select subsets of entities. Extended selections can be added to, removed from, or intersected with existing selections, and previous selections can be also saved and retrieved.

To access extended entity selection:
  • Right-click in the modeling window and choose an option from the Select menu.
    This menu shows all available selection functions and methods for the currently active entity selector types.
  • Open the Advanced Selection dialog in one of the following ways:
    • Click next to an entity selector.
    • Press Spacebar.
    • Right-click in the modeling window and choose Select > Advanced.
    Use the drop-down menus at the top-left of the dialog to choose the extended selection mode (Add, Remove, or Intersect) and the selection method (options vary depending on entity type), then select a subset of entities.

    The process for selecting entities varies depending on the method.

    Tip: The options in the context menu beneath Advanced (By Entity, By ID, etc. ) correlate to different selection methods in the Advanced Selection dialog. Choosing one of these options opens the dialog with the selected method.

Extended Entity Selection Options

The following options are available for extended entity selection.

Note: The following selection options do not apply to all entity types. Only valid selections for the current entity type are displayed in the menu.

Context Menu Options

Displayed
Select all entities of the specified type currently displayed in the modeling window.
Reverse
Allows for a Boolean "not" to be performed on the currently displayed entities; all selected entities are removed from the mark; all entities which are not on the mark and are currently active are selected.
All
Select all entities of the specified type. The set to be added to the user mark includes entities displayed and those not displayed.
Adjacent
Select entities adjacent to the entities already selected.
Attached
Select entities by specifying an entity among a large group of continuously connected elements. HyperWorks includes the entities currently displayed that are attached to the entities already selected. Entities that are not displayed will not be selected although they may be attached to the entity selected.
Face
Select entities that are located on the same surface face as the previously selected entity. HyperWorks finds entities that are attached to each other without crossing a feature line. Attached, adjacent surfaces, nodes, or elements are progressively selected when the angle between them is less than or equal to the specified feature angle.
In HyperMesh, the feature angle option is set in Preferences > Geometry. In HyperView, it is set in Preferences > Visualization.
HyperView limitations:
  • Works on shell elements only.
  • Does not handle flipped normals.
  • Cannot be used to select components.
By Dimension
Select entities by dimension (0D, 1D, 2D, and 3D). You can select one or more of the dimensions available.
Setting the entity selector to Nodes allows you to select nodes attached to all elements with the selected dimension. HyperView performs the entity binding changes for proper selection.
HyperView only
Similar
Select entities that are similar to the your current selection based on config.
Clear Selection
Remove all entities from your active selection.
(HyperMesh only)
Save Selection
Save the currently selected entities to a holding area known as the user mark.
Retrieve Selection
Retrieve previously saved entities from the user mark.

HyperMesh Advanced Selection Dialog Options

By Assembly
Select entities by assembly.
By Block
Select entities associated with one or more block entities.
By Collector
Select elements, lines, surfaces, loads, coordinate systems, vectors, equations, and points by collector.
If you select component collectors in regard to elements or lines, the elements or lines contained in the selected components are selected. With all other entities, the entities selected by this operation are those attached to the selected component.
By Component
Select entities by component.
By Config
Select elements by configuration and type. The element type is dependent on the template file.
Use the visibility filter drop-down menu to apply your settings to all entities in the model, regardless if they are displayed on the screen or not, or only the entities that are displayed.
By Connector Group
Select entities associated with one or more connector groups.
By Domains
Select entities associated with a morph domain.
By Edge
Select entities (nodes, elements) by surface edge. HyperWorks finds entities that are attached to each other without crossing a feature line. The feature line can be adjusted using the Angle slider. Attached, adjacent surfaces or elements are progressively selected when the angle between them is less than or equal to the specified feature angle.
Click to view more options.
Tip: You can also select elements by edge by holding Alt while left-clicking. Hold Alt and scroll to adjust the feature angle.
By Face
Select entities that are located on the same surface face as the previously selected entity. HyperWorks finds entities that are attached to each other without crossing a feature line. The feature line can be adjusted using the Angle slider. Attached, adjacent surfaces, nodes, or elements are progressively selected when the angle between them is less than or equal to the specified feature angle.
Click to view more options.
Tip: You can also select elements by face by holding Alt while left-clicking. Hold Alt and scroll to adjust the feature angle.
By Group
Select entities by group.
By Handles
Select entities associated with morphing handles.
By ID
Select entities by typing in their ID numbers.
Use a comma to separate multiple entities.
By Include
Select FE entities such as elements, loads, and groups that belong to the selected include.
Note: Includes created via the Model Browser are only valid for solvers that support them.
By Laminate
Select entities associated with one or more laminate entities.
By Limits (3D)
Using this method, selection propagates to all connected faces selected, while excluding faces that are connected to the specified limit nodes. Limit nodes must be selected first to enable the propagating faces selector.
Note: This method is only available when the selection type is faces or facets.
By Line
Pick lines in the modeling window. Entities associates with the lines are selected.
By List
Select entities from a list.
By Material
Select entities by material.
By Morphing Volumes
Select entities associated with morphing volumes.
By Multibodies
Select entities associated with one or more multibody entities.
By Output Block
Select the nodes, elements, comps, systs, groups and mats within an outputblock.
By Part
Select entities associated with a part.
By Path
Pick multiple nodes, lines, or elements and select all the nodes/lines/elements that fall in the closest connecting path. If you select two nodes on a free edge of some elements, the function tries to find the closest path along that free edge. This function uses the connectivity of the elements between the nodes, and thus requires the selected nodes to be part of a continuous shell mesh. Similarly, By Path for lines uses the connectivity of surfaces/solids and thus requires the selected lines to be surface/solid edges.
Activate the Show path preview option to the visualize the path before you create it.
Tip: You can also select node/line paths by holding Alt while left-clicking. Note that the path preview is not displayed when using the keyboard shortcut.
By Plane
Use the graphics area to define a plane using the Vector/Plane tool, and select entities on this plane, or normal to it.
Use the Plane option to select using a plane of infinite area, with a specified Width value, centered at the defined location. Use the Normal to Plane option to select using a cylinder of infinite length, with a specified Radius, centered at the defined location.
When applicable, use the Fully Contained Only option to restrict selection to only entities that are fully contained inside the plane (instead of only touching it).
By Ply
Select entities associated with one or more ply entities.
By Points
Pick points in the modeling window. Entities associates with the points are selected.
By Property
Select entities by property.
By Set
Select the entities within a set.
By Solid
Pick solids in the modeling window. Entities associates with the solids are selected.
By Surface
Pick surfaces in the modeling window. Entities associates with the surfaces are selected.
By Width
Select surfaces by width, either by picking a sample surface or by specifying a range of values for the width.
Note: The browser list for the geometry-based selection methods, namely “By Point”, “By Line”, “By Surface”, and “By Solid” is disabled by default for improved performance. Enabling these lists can lead to slower performance on large models.

HyperView Advanced Selection Dialog Options

All selection methods in the dialog include a visibility filter. This allows you to apply your settings to all entities in the model, regardless if they are displayed on the screen or not, or only the entities that are displayed.

In addition,HyperView is capable of entity binding changes between nodes, elements, and components - which provides you with easy selection. For example, when Nodes is specified on the entity selector, the By ID option allows you to select either By Node ID, By Element ID, or By Component ID.

By ID
Select entities by entering an ID number.
Make a selection from the By ID drop-down menu (By Node ID, By Element ID, or By Component ID), and then enter a valid expression (listed below) and an ID in the text box.
==
Displays entities equal to the ID entered
!=
Displays entities not equal to the ID entered
<
Displays entities less than the ID entered
<=
Display entities less than or equal to the ID entered
>
Displays entities greater than the ID entered
>=
Display entities greater than or equal to the ID entered
Note: You can also enter IDs and/or ranges, separated by commas (for example: 1, 3, 5-12) in the text box.

In addition, you may also make a selection from the Look in drop-down menu. When a model contains duplicate IDs, HyperView organizes the model into different pools - therefore you need to specify a pool in order to select a unique element.

If All is used, all the entities with duplicate IDs are selected.

By Type
Select elements by configuration. You can select one or more of the various element configurations available.
If Element configuration is selected, HyperView will apply the binding changes to find the nodes connected to the elements.
By Sets
Select the entities within a set.
By Contour
Select entities by contour.
The following contour options are available:
Value
Enter a contour value in the text box (see the Note below).
Percent
Enter the percentage of entities to select (0 to 100) in the text box (see the Note below).
Top N
Enter a positive decimal value for N, where N is the number of entities to be selected. For example, if you enter 50, the application displays the top 50 elements/nodes that have the highest contour value.
Bottom N
Enter a positive decimal value for N, where N is the number of entities to be selected. For example, if you enter 50, the application displays the bottom 50 elements/nodes that have the lowest contour value.
No result
All nodes or elements without any results are selected.
Max of Window
Displays the maximum contour value for the entities selected with a window. For overlaid models, the entity is selected per model (except in Idle mode, where only the active model is considered).
Min of Window
Displays the minimum contour value for the entities selected with a window. For overlaid models, the entity is selected per model (except in Idle mode, where only the active model is considered).
Note: If you select Value or Percent, you must select a quantifier from the bottom, left-most drop-down menu:
=
Displays entities equal to the contour value/percent entered.
!=
Displays entities not equal to the contour value/percent entered.
<
Displays entities less than the contour value/percent entered.
<=
Display entities less than or equal to the contour value/percent entered.
>
Displays entities greater than the contour value/percent entered.
>=
Display entities greater than or equal to the contour value/percent entered.
By Sphere
Allows you to select entities by entering location information for x, y, z and a user-defined radius.

Attribute Columns

Add attributes to the selection dialog as columns to facilitate sorting and efficient identification of entities.

Add attribute columns to the Advanced Selection dialog by right-clicking on the column headers and selecting More. A dialog containing a list of the available attributes for the specific entity type is shown, from which the column's visibility can be controlled. Once a column is added to a particular entity-based selection method, it is available across all the entity selectors that refer to that selection method.

Note: The possibility to add attribute columns is available only for the selection methods which are based on entity types. For example: “By Material”.


Figure 1.

Column Filtering and Search

Search and filtering attribute column data in the selection dialog.

Define search filters inside the selection view to identify entities based on known attributes. Quickly search by directly typing the entity name or ID in the search bar or perform an advanced search by interactively building the search string using the column data. Click on the text field of the search bar to access a dynamic suggestion list that assists in building an advanced search string.



Figure 2.

Click the filter icon on the column header to apply a quick filter directly to the columns.



Figure 3.
Note: Once a search string is applied for an entity list, the recently used search strings are saved and can be accessed by clicking on the text field of the search bar.

Refer to the browser documentation for more information on search and filtering.