Groups, Layers and Viewing Your Model

In addition to the numerous pre- and post-processing options provided by FEMAP to make the generation and interpretation of FEA easier, FEMAP also provides a wide array of viewing options that play a key role in increas-ing your FEA productivity.

The options and methods for controlling how your model is displayed on screen can be divided into two broad cat-egories:

View Select, View Options, and View, Visibility:

View Select controls the top level display options. With View Select you can control whether your model is dis-played in hidden line or plain wireframe mode, turn on and off stress contours, animations and deformed plots, etc.

View Options provides the detailed control over how entities are displayed, i.e. what color elements are drawn with, whether or not labels for nodes are displayed, whether or not perspective is turned on, etc. View Options also pro-vides extensive control over the display of post-processing options. View, Visibility propro-vides a single “tabbed”

interface to control the visibility of different entity types and/or labels, groups, layers, loads and constraints. View, Visibility also has options to toggle on/off the display of elements based on element type, element shape, and/or associated to materials or properties.

Groups and Layers:

By using groups and layers, you can segment your model into smaller, more manageable, discrete pieces. These pieces can then be used to minimize the amount of information presented in the graphics windows or in printed reports by specifying which group(s) will be seen or which group(s) will be used to create a report. Groups and lay-ers also make it easier to manipulate, update, and apply loads to your model.

5.9.1 Working with View Select and View Options 5.9.1.1 View Select

View Select provides top level control of how your model is displayed.

This section describes the Model Style options. The XY Style, Deformed Style, and Contour Style options are dis-cussed in Section 5.10, "Post-processing".

FEMAP provides numerous styles in which you can display your model. Each style provides certain benefits.

Choice of the best style depends upon what you need to accomplish. The following table describes all of the styles, their advantages and disadvantages:

The pictures below show examples of the various model styles.

Although the hidden line removal options do require substantial calculations, and are therefore somewhat slower, they can often be the best approach to understanding a complex model. This is especially true for 3D models. After you make the first hidden line display, FEMAP retains a display list of the sorted information. This dramatically speeds up redrawing hidden line views. For more information, see Section 6.3.2.1, "Window, Redraw..." and in FEMAP Commands.

Style Description Advantages Disadvantages (GDI Graphics) Render

Draw

Complex 3D models can be hard to visualize. Entities drawn on top of each other may make it difficult to locate a particular detail.

Fairly Slow. Not usually best for picking - many entities are not visi-ble. Does not properly remove hid-den lines for some elements (see Full Hidden Line).

Not appropriate as a working mode.

Really just intended for checking

Usually not used for a working mode. Intended for checking

For solid element models, you can also use the Free Face option to simulate a hidden line view. In fact, you can even use this mode to show hidden lines in a different line style (like dashed), instead of removing them. To remove backfaces, use the Fill, Back-faces and Hidden option, under the View Options command, and chose one of the

“Skip” methods. Choose the Show All Faces method to show hidden lines as a different color/style, then go to the Free Edge and Face option and set the Free Edge Color to Use View Color. Finally, choose the color and linestyle that you want to use.

The final section of this dialog box, Function, is used to select the function that will be displayed when you choose the XY of Function display style. Even though this is obviously an XY style of plot, you must choose the function to be displayed from this dialog because it is a display of model information, not always post-processing information like all other XY plotting styles.

You can also show multiple functions at the same time in one plot by clicking the multiple button and choosing which functions to view (You can choose up to 9 to display). This is helpful when comparing such things as Input PSD functions, Stress vs. Strain curves, or “XY Plots” from some types of analysis (usually dynamics) which in some cases are read into FEMAP and stored as functions.

5.9.1.2 View Options

The View Options command in FEMAP provides detailed control of the display of all entities in the FEMAP Graphics window(s). Each view in FEMAP is independent, and the View Select and View Options changes will affect only that view, unless you select the All Views option. The quickest method to assess how View Options can help you tailor the display of a finite element model is to experiment with the various settings.

As you can see from the View Options dialog box, there is an enormous amount of control over how your model is displayed. Describing how each option affects the display of your model is beyond the scope of this manual. For more information, see Section 6.1.5.3, "View, Options..." of the FEMAP Commands manual.

5.9.1.3 View Visibility

Controls the visibility of Entity Types and Entity Labels, Groups, Layers, Loads and Constraints, and Elements using various shape, type, and association criteria all in one “tabbed” interface. Please see Section 6.1.4, "View, Visibility..." of the FEMAP Commands Manual for a full description.

5.9.2 Groups and Layers Overview

Some main points about groups and layers that will help you understand them better:

• Each entity in FEMAP can have only one layer reference.

• An entity can be in more than one group.

• Any combination of layers from none to all can be displayed at any time.

• A model can have only one “active” group at a time.

• FEMAP graphics windows can use the entities in a group to display one of the following:

- Entities from the active group.

- Entities from a single specified group.

- Entities from a any number of selected groups.

- Whole Model, i.e., no group.

Groups are designed to mimic how FEA models were numbered and arranged when there were built by hand. For example, in the aircraft industry, a model of a complete aircraft would be very carefully numbered. All the nodes and elements at a frame at a particular location along the fuselage would be numbered in such a way to clearly identify them as belonging to that frame. FEMAP grouping makes it very easy to isolate portions of a finite element model that are numbered in such a manner.

Layers are designed similar to layering in most CAD systems. The name layer comes from the clear sheet of paper analogy for CAD layering, where all the entities associated with a given layer would be drawn on a clear sheet of paper, and only the “active” clear sheets would be overlaid to produce a visual image.