BasicFEA

Advanced Menu Selection

Advanced Menu Selection

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Advanced Menu Selection

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The extended entity selection menu provides a number of entity selection options. To access the extended selection menu, click the data type button on the current entity selector.

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Entity selector

ext-ent-sel

Extended entity selection menu

You can then select an option from the extended entity selection menu. These selection options are displayed for all of the entity types in BasicFEA. Selections that are not valid for the current entity type are inactive.

Extended selection techniques are described in the following table:

all

Allows you to select all entities of the specified type. When you select all, the set to be added to the user mark includes entities displayed and those not displayed.

by adjacent

Allows you to select entities adjacent to the entities already selected. When you select by adjacent, BasicFEA includes the entities that are adjacent to the entities already selected.

by assems

Allows you to select entities by assembly. When you select by assems, BasicFEA displays a list of the available assemblies. You may select multiple assemblies from this list.

by attached

Allows you to select entities by specifying an entity among a large group of continuously connected elements. When you select by attached, BasicFEA 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.

by collector

Allows you to select elements, lines, surfaces, loads, coordinate systems, vectors, equations and points by collector. When you select by collector, BasicFEA displays a list of the available collectors. You may select multiple collectors from this list.


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 config

Allows you to select elements by configuration and type. When you select by config, BasicFEA displays a panel for specifying an element configuration and type for selection. The element type is dependent on the template file specified in the Global panel.

by face

Allows you to select entities (nodes, elements) by surface face. It finds entities that are attached to each other without crossing a feature line. The feature angle parameter in the Options panel’s mesh and geometry subpanels determine the feature lines. Attached, adjacent surfaces or elements are progressively selected when the angle between them is less than or equal to the specified feature angle.

by group

Allows you to select entities by group. When you select by group, BasicFEA displays a list of the available groups. You may select multiple groups from this list.

by id

Allows you to select entities by typing in their ID numbers. When you select by id, a pop-up window prompts you to type ID numbers or ranges of ID numbers.

You can use keywords to specify a range that determines which entities are selected. The standard format is:

<start number> - <end number> by <increment value>

"through", "thru", or "t" may be substituted for the dash (-), and the letter "b" may be substituted for "by" when you specify the range.

Examples of valid by id expressions:

127

127 – 722

300 through 600

300 thru 600

300 t 600

1000 - 2000 by 100

1000 - 2000 b 100

You can also use a comma to separate individual entities or entity ranges.

Examples of valid lists of by id expressions:

1, 3, 4, 5, 100

3, 5, 8 - 10, 800, 850

1 - 100 by 2, 77, 400 t 500 b 3

by include

Allows you to select FE entities such as elements, loads, groups and so on. that belong to selected include. When you select by include, BasicFEA displays a list of the available includes that you may select.

Note:Includes created via the Model browser are only valid for solvers that support them.

by output block

Allows you to select the nodes, elements, comps, systs, groups and mats within an output block. When you select by output block, BasicFEA displays a list of the available output blocks from which you may select. Output blocks are created in the Output Blocks panel.

by path

Allows you to pick multiple nodes or lines and selects all the nodes/lines that fall in the closest path connecting the selected ones. 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.

by sets

Allows you to select the entities within a set. When you select by sets, BasicFEA displays a list of the available sets from which you may select. Sets are created in the Entity Sets panel.

by surface

Allows you to select the entities which are associated to a surface. When you select by surface, BasicFEA displays a panel from which you may select one or more surfaces. Once the surfaces have been selected, click select and BasicFEA selects the entities which are associated to the surfaces. You can associate entities to a surface in the Node Edit panel.

by window

Allows you to select entities inside a user-defined multiple-sided polygon in the plane of the screen. Selecting by window activates the Build Window panel. Select points in the graphics area to define a window enclosing the pick handles of the desired entities. Click select entities to highlight the enclosed entities. Alternatively, click reject entities to deselect enclosed entities that were previously highlighted.

by width

Allows you to select surfaces by width, either by picking a sample surface or by specifying a range of values for the width.

displayed

Allows you to select all of the entities currently displayed on the screen. When disp is selected, all entities within collectors that are active in the disp (display) panel are selected.

duplicate

Allows you to duplicate the currently selected elements, lines, surfaces, or points. When you select duplicate, a pop-up window allows you to choose a component for the newly created duplicate entities. Select current to place the new entities in the currently active component collector. Select original to place the new entities in the same component collectors as the original entities. The initially selected entities are deselected when the duplicate elements are created and selected. This can be very useful when you use the reflect function on a model (only available for elements and lines).

on plane

Allows you to select a group of entities whose pick handles reside on a plane. This is useful when you want to apply constraints to a plane.

retrieve

Allows you to retrieve previously saved entities from the user mark. Entities can be saved to the user mark by selecting save in this pop-up window, or by selecting save failed in the Check Elems panel.

reverse

Allows for a Boolean "not" to be performed on the currently displayed elements. When reverse is selected, all selected elements are removed from the mark; all elements which are not on the mark and are currently active are selected.

save

Allows you to save the currently selected entities to a holding area known as the user mark.

Note:Some panels require only a single entity to collect; for example, origin in the Systems panel requires only one node. The extended entity selection menu is not displayed in such situations.

See Also:

Entity selector

Input Controls