Field

Description

rotate angle (geometry)

The rotate angle specifies the number of degrees that your model rotates when you use the arrow keys.  Increasing or decreasing the angle makes the model appear to rotate faster or slower.  For smaller models, setting the rotation angle to a lower value allows a smooth transition from frame to frame.

pick tol (geometry)

The pick tolerance specifies the maximum distance, in pixels, that the cursor can be from the pick handle of a graphical entity in order to select it.  When the pick tolerance is increased, it is easier to pick an entity.

zoom factor (geometry)

The zoom factor specifies the multiplication factor that is used to increase or decrease the scale of the current view when you press the + and – keys on the numeric keypad.

surf lines (geometry)

The surf lines parameter specifies the default number of u-v lines to draw on new surfaces when they are created.  Displaying surface lines can help you to visualize a surface better, but it can slow down the redraw speed of a large model.  The number of surface lines on existing surfaces can be changed by using the Surf Lines panel.

element handle (graphics)

The element handles option specifies whether or not to draw element handles.  An element handle is a single-pixel dot at the centroid of an element.  Turning off pick handles can speed up the redraw time.

The element handles option also allows you to display the center of gravity for multibody collectors and text labels for 1D elements.

fixed point (graphics)

The fixed points option allows you to specify whether or not to display fixed points. This does not affect the display of free points.  Fixed points can also be turned on and off from vis opts in the Geometry Cleanup panel.

geom handle (graphics)

The geom handles option allows you to specify whether or not to display line and surface handles.

coincident picking (graphics)

The coincident picking option allows you to graphically select a desired entity from a stack of coincident entities when there are multiple entities at the same location.  For example, if multiple loads are detected at the same location, a circular insert pops up containing various loads displayed separately with their IDs turned on.  You can then pick the appropriate load.  This function is activated by turning on coincident picking in the Options panel.  The entities supported for coincident picking are nodes, elements, loads and systems.

template labels (graphics)

This option allows you to display the element labels as template names.

shrink (graphics)

The shrink option controls the shrink factor to be used when drawing elements.  If no shrink is selected, each element is drawn so that its corners directly connect to its nodes.  If a shrink value is applied, the element is scaled by the specified value about its centroid, so that its corners do not appear to touch its nodes.  The shrink value must be between 0 and 1.  Shrinking elements is a convenient way to detect holes in a mesh and to improve wireframe element picking.