Options Panel

Location: Preferences menu

Geometry Subpanel

Use the Geometry subpanel to change geometry and model tolerances and display settings.

Option	Action
cleanup tol	Clean up the CAD geometry data by equivalencing edges, deleting fillets, and eliminating extraneous vertices. Specify the cleanup tolerance value used to determine how much to modify the geometry in the course of "cleaning" it. Since you will approximate the geometry with a finite element mesh, you need to work with a cleanup tolerance that is less than the node tolerance used in the mesh generation.
geom feature angle	Specify the geom feature angle used to determine when model geometry should have a new vertex added (creating two surfaces from one) or removed (merging two surfaces into one).
geometry stitching	For panels involving surface creation, choose how newly created surfaces are stitched to the model. by component (default) Stitch created surfaces to neighbor surfaces that belong to the same component. all Stitch created surfaces to all neighboring surfaces. attached to selection Stitch created surfaces to the surfaces attached to selected surfaces or edges. selection only Only stitch created surfaces to other selected surfaces, or surfaces that have edges or vertices selected.
rotate angle	Specifies the amount your model rotates when you use the rotation buttons on the toolbar or press the arrow keys. Tip: 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 desensitizes the amount of rotation and allows a smooth transition from frame to frame.
pick tol	Specifies the maximum distance, in pixels, that the cursor can be from a graphical entity in order to select it. Tip: When the pick tolerance is increased, it is easier to pick an entity.
zoom factor	Specifies the multiplication factor used to increase or decrease the scale of the current view when you press the + and - keys or the zoom in/out button in the toolbar.
surf lines	Specifies the default number of u-v lines to draw on new surfaces when they are created. Tip: 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.

Mesh Subpanel

Use the Mesh subpanel to change default meshing behavior, such as when performing an automatic re-mesh of geometry that has been edited to change its topology.

Option	Action
element size	Specify a default edge length for elements, in the same units that the loaded model was created in (mm, inches, and so on). This determines the default values whenever meshing, such as in the Automesh panel.
element order	Choose between using first-order (corner nodes only) and second-order (corner and mid-edge nodes) elements when meshing.
node tol	Specify the resolution to which the finite element data in the model is maintained. When you specify a node tolerance, any two nodes are considered to be coincident if the distance between them is less than the value.
feature angle	Specify the maximum distance that the selected entity must be within to be included in the selection. When you select entities by face, attached adjacent surfaces or elements are progressively selected as long as the angle between them is less than or equal to the feature angle. This value is used in element cleanup.
topology revision	Select a method for handling your model when the geometry's topology is changed. keep mesh Keep the model's existing mesh. delete mesh Delete the model's existing mesh. remesh Automatically remesh the model using the default values. advanced remesh Maintain node associations with surfaces. Note: Normal remesh may not always retain node/surface associativity, which may result in orphaned elements. Figure 1. 2d+3d(tet) remesh Updates tet elements associated to solid geometry locally when geometry is modified with operations like Boolean, Solid trim, or Surface Offset. If boundary layer or hex elements are present, those will be replaced with tets on update. There are two required conditions. First, all tetra elements should be associated to solid geometry. Second, an associated surface mesh should be present. If the surface mesh is not there, generate boundary elements using the "Face" tool.
pick tol	Specify the maximum distance, in pixels, that the cursor can be from a graphical entity in order to select it. Tip: When the pick tolerance is increased, it is easier to pick an entity.
zoom factor	Specify the multiplication factor that is used to increase or decrease the scale of the current view when you press the + and - keys or the zoom in/out button in the toolbar.
Allow duplicate IDs	Permit properties in different groups to have the same ID. Note: Properties must be unique within each group. Duplicate IDs can only exist if they are in separate groups. Only available in Nastran, LS-DYNA, OptiStruct and Radioss solver interfaces.

Graphics Subpanel

Use the Graphics subpanel to define display settings.

Option	Action
lights	Select a light-based shading method.
view simplification	To produce a smoother animation when rotating or panning a model, you can refrain the calculation and rendering of some model elements until the model stops moving.
simplify current comp	Apply the simplification to the current component as well as the rest. Clear this checkbox to retain the full detail of the current component during view simplification. Note: Used in conjunction with view simplification modes.
optimize view ctrls	Remove graphical annotations and entities when you rotate, zoom (via the mouse wheel), or pan the model. Graphical annotations and entities are restored once you release the mouse button. The following graphical annotations and entities are removed: Markers (Loads, Systems, Vectors) Entity Labels and IDs Geometry Fixed and Topology Points Geometry Lines and Topology Lines (Handles and Direction) Manipulators Element handles Note: Used in conjunction with view simplification modes.
bitmap animation	Select whether to render animation sequences as a series of 2D images instead of full 3D modeling. Tip: For large models this can produce faster animation, but for small ones it may actually produce slower results.
AVI Options	Select the frame size of exported Audio-Video Interleave animation files, as a fraction of your screen size. Use the toggle just below the switch to choose the color depth to output AVI files in: 8 bit (256 colors) or 24 bit (16.8M colors).
result color type	Choose between blended contours and discrete contours.
geometry refinement	Select a geometry refinement level to control how extensively the graphics engine smooths faceted feature lines and contours within geometric entities such as lines and surfaces. The degree of faceting is arbitrarily numbered from 1 to 5, with 5 being the most refined and 1 being the coarsest. Higher values may affect rendering performance. If you do not want to continuously keep adjusting the degree of faceting, select Auto to automatically increase the geometry resolution when you zoom in on a model. Note: You can set Auto as the default level of refinement by entering the environment variable HM_AUTO_REFINEMENT=1. Figure 2. Lower Refinement Figure 3. Higher Refinement
element handle	Elements are normally drawn as simple triangles or quads. Select this checkbox to display a small handle at each elements center, which can sometimes aid in the selection of individual elements. However, handles are one more item for the graphics engine to render, therefore clearing this checkbox may improve rendering speed when working with large models. Next to the checkbox, enter a value from 0 to 10. This value filters out the text labels on elements depending on how closely zoomed in the view is. A value of 0 never filters labels, and can result in the text obscuring important parts of the model when zoomed out. Figure 4. Text Labels for RBE3 Connectors. The light orange noise is the text labels from many RBE3 connectors. For values 1-10, higher values more aggressively filter out/hide the labels. 1 barely filters at all, while 10 filters unless zoomed in very close. Figure 5. Element Handle Value Set to 10. Even when zoomed in quite close, the labels still do not display when the value is set to 10. The default value is 3, at which level labels are filtered out unless zoomed in fairly closely. Figure 6. Element Handle Value Set to 3. Text labels are still hidden even when the zoom level is fairly close. Figure 7. Element Handle Value Set to 3 with Increased Zoom. Text labels display when zoomed in a bit closer.
load handle	Loads, such as forces, pressures, moments, or temperatures, normally display with a text label indicating the type (for example, "m" for moments) and the numeric magnitude. Clearing this checkbox to cease the drawing of any load labels. Note: Each load panel also has a label loads checkbox, used to toggle the display of load magnitudes. The load handle checkbox supersedes these, so in order for them to have any effect this checkbox must be active.
geom handle	Display handles for free lines.
fixed points	Display fixed points. Clear this checkbox to turn off the display of fixed points. Note: This option does not affect the display of free points. Fixed points can also be turned on and off via vis opts in the Geometry Cleanup panel.
coincident picking	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 displays containing various loads displayed separately with their IDs turned on. You can then select the appropriate entity. This function is activated by turning on coincident picking in the Preferences dialog. The following non-named entities are supported: Nodes Elements Surfaces Solids Systems Loads Lines In addition to ID, elements, systems and loads will display type in the UI list. Named entities display ID and color in the UI list for the entity: Properties Materials Components The following images are an example of coincident picking for non-named and named entities. Figure 8.
shrink	Control the shrink factor to be used when drawing elements. With zero shrink, each element is drawn so that its corners directly connect to its nodes. If you specify a shrink value greater than zero, 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. Tip: Shrinking elements is useful for detecting holes in a mesh and improving wireframe element picking.
thick mesh lines	Draw mesh lines in double the normal width for better visibility of low-contrast colors. This option is useful when working with models that have many different components, which may cause some components to drawn in colors that do not contrast very well with the Engineering Solutions background.
Thick 1D Elements	Draws 1D elements in double the normal width for better visibility. Note: Using thick mesh lines at the same time as thick 1D elements may effectively negate this feature, since both types of lines will be drawn in identical thickness.
1D at Centroid	Drives the display of the beam section 3D representation either at its Centroid (on) or its Shear Center (off). If off, HyperMesh represents the 3D detailed view with GRID at the section's shear center.
template labels (type)	Display element labels as template names (based on the current solver interface). Clear this checkbox to display element labels as Engineering Solutions names.
rotate about mode	Rotate the model around the center of all current visible entities. Clear this checkbox to rotate the model around the center of the screen. Note: The different behaviors can only be seen, when the model is not positioned in the center of the screen.

Menu Config Subpanel

Use the Menu Config subpanel to change the size of the menu or graphics fonts.

Option	Action
macro file	Specify the desired macro file when using a Utility menu (activated via the View menu).
exponential	Display numeric fields in the panels and card editor using an exponential format. Clear this checkbox to display numeric fields using a fixed decimal format.
graphic font	Select a font to use when entity IDs, 1D element handles, and legends are displayed. The current font size is displayed.
cursor size	Choose a cursor size.

Colors Subpanel

Use the Colors subpanel to select colors for the global axis, axis labels, free edges, suppressed edges, and T-joint edges, and many more entities. You can also change the screen background color, the global axes indicators, and more.

To change the colors of any part of the interface, click the color button next to its name and select your desired color.

Click reset to return to the default colors, undoing any and all color changes.

Table 1. Environment
Option	Action
background	Select a background color for the modeling window.
global X axis	Select a color for the X axis indicator in the global coordinate system which displays in the corner of the modeling window. Note: When set to background, all three axes change to the background color on the assumption that the only reason to make one axis invisible is to make them all invisible for screenshots or display purposes.
global Y axis	Select a color for the Y axis indicator in the global coordinate system which displays in the corner of the modeling window. Note: When set to background, all three axes change to the background color on the assumption that the only reason to make one axis invisible is to make them all invisible for screenshots or display purposes.
global Z axis	Select a color for the Z axis indicator in the global coordinate system which displays in the corner of the modeling window. Note: When set to background, all three axes change to the background color on the assumption that the only reason to make one axis invisible is to make them all invisible for screenshots or display purposes.
axis label	Select a color for the X, Y, and Z letters on the global coordinate system which displays in the corner of the modeling window.
mesh line	Select a color for the lines on a mesh that indicate the edges of mesh elements. By default, mesh line is set to auto, which assigns the component color as the mesh line color. To select a custom mesh line color for the entire mesh, click the toggle. Note: Only works when the element color mode is set to By Comp. Other element color modes render mesh lines black or use the defaults selected in the Options panel, Color subpanel or in the Colors dialog, Mesh tab (accessed from the Preferences menu). These settings are not applicable to 2nd order elements and clipped elements of section cuts, or when you are in Automesh panel mode. Used in conjunction with the Mesh Appearance settings.

Table 2. Surface data
Option	Action
free edges	Select a color for the edges of surfaces that do not connect to any other surfaces.
shared edges	Select a color for the edges of surfaces that connect to one other surface.
suppressed edges	Select a color for shared edges that have been manually suppressed so that the automesher will treat the shared surfaces as if they were one surface, allowing elements to cross the edge as if it were not there at all.
t-junctions	Select a color for edges shared by three or more surfaces.

Table 3. 3D solids
Option	Action
fin faces	Select a color for fin faces, which are surfaces that split a 3D solid entity, but only partway through, they do not actually extend through the entire entity.
bounding faces	Select a color for the outer faces of solid entity.
full partition faces	Select a color for the faces of adjoined solids
2d faces (topo)	Select a color for the 2D faces that are not part of a solid when using the by 2D topo visualization mode.
ignored (topo)	Select a color for the 2D faces when using the by 2D topo visualization mode.
edges (comp)	Select a color for the mesh edges when coloring mesh with the by comp visualization mode.

Table 4. by Mappable Display Control (solids)
Option	Action
ignored map	Select a default visualization color for solids that require partitioning to become mappable.
not mappable	Select a default visualization color for solids that have been edited, but still require further partitioning to create mappable solids.
1 dir. map	Select a default visualization color for solids that can be mapped (for 3D meshing) in one direction.
3 dir. map	Select a default visualization color for solids that can be mapped (for 3D meshing) in three directions.

Table 5. Elements
Option	Action
elems, no prop/mat	Select a color to display elements that do not have any properties or materials assigned to them.

Page Names Subpanel

Use the Page Names subpanel to edit the page names that appear on the menu. To change a main menu page's header or abbreviation:

Select the page name or abbreviation you want to change.
Enter the new name or abbreviation.
Click return.

The main menu page names and abbreviations are updated when the panel is exited.

Graphics File Subpanel

Use the Graphics Files subpanel to specify options for output graphical captures (JPEG images or AVI videos) of the modeling window.

Option	Action
blank background	Omit the background color gradient (replacing it with flat white).
jpeg quality	Set the desired blend between small file size (left) and high image quality (right).
save JPEG	Create JPEG captures of the modeling window so that you can test and see the results of your current settings.
print when done	Automatically send the image to your default printer whenever a screen capture is performed.
AVI options	Choose the video resolution relative to your current desktop resolution (full screen, 1/4 screen, or 1/9 screen). You can also choose between creating videos using 8 bit color (256 total colors, resulting in smaller file size but possibly lower image quality) or 24 bit color (16.8 million colors for maximum image quality, but larger file size). Note: Only valid for Audio-Visual Interleave videos.