Create Free-Body Sections

Name

The name of the FBD section group.

Select Node Path

Select a node path for the FBD section group.

Select Intersect Entity

Select elements of interest along the node path for the FBD section group. Cross-sections on the FBD Forces tool use all elements intersecting the plane. However, the Trace Plot tool allows you to specify what elements will be considered.

Number of cuts between nodes

Defines the amount of extra cross-sections between each pair of selected nodes.

Cutting plane definition

Defines the normal direction of all cross-sections created by the Trace Plot tool.

Direction

Available when the cutting plane definition is set to common direction. Defines a vector to be used as the normal direction for all cross-sections.

System definition

Defines the system used to evaluate results.

The Direction-Based option allows you to define coordinate systems at each node automatically. The selection box is used to define a vector in the XY plane. The system coordinate will be:

• X direction is defined automatically by the normal of each cross-section
• Z is defined by the vectorial product of X and the vector is defined by you
• Y direction is the vectorial product of Z and X

All FBD section groups display in the Model Browser.