S8-1 PAT318, Section 8, March 2005 SECTION 8 GROUPS

S8-2 PAT318, Section 8, March 2005

S8-3 PAT318, Section 8, March 2005 INTRODUCTION TO GROUPS Allows geometric and FE entities to be divided into separate groups for various modeling and post-processing tasks A group named default_group is created automatically when a new database is created Newly created items automatically become members of the current group Any number of groups can be created, and entities may belong to more than one group Groups become permanent members of the database Name of current group is displayed as part of Viewport banner

S8-4 PAT318, Section 8, March 2005 EXAMPLE OF GROUPS What is a Group? Any subset of model A collection of entities Separate groups for geometry & finite elements Create subsets when working with large models

S8-5 PAT318, Section 8, March 2005 GROUPS TERMINOLOGY Current Group into which newly created entities are placed Only one group may be current at a time Target Group that will be acted upon Translate entities from the Target Group to the Current Group Modify the appearance of the Target Group Posted Group is displayed in a viewport A group may be posted to more than one viewport More than one group may be posted to a viewport

S8-6 PAT318, Section 8, March 2005 GROUP MANIPULATION Getting beyond default_group Manipulate groups by clicking a Group in the main menu bar Group options can be selected from the Group pull down menu, or the Action choice on the Group form

S8-7 PAT318, Section 8, March 2005 CREATING A GROUP Choose Group/Create, or change the Action to create in the Group menu Assign new group name The default is to make the new group the Current Group (new entities assigned to) Use the Group Contents options to select group member categories, i.e. Add Entity Selection, Add All Geometry, Add All FEM, Add All Orphans, Add All Entities Loads, boundary conditions, coordinate frames, fields, load cases and results are not group members

S8-8 PAT318, Section 8, March 2005 METHOD OF CREATING A GROUP Select EntitySelect the desired entities from the screen Property SetSelect element property set names (user specified), i.e. prop_1, prop_2 Property TypeSelect element property type, i.e. 2D shell, 3D solid Loads/BCs SetSelect load and boundary condition set names, i.e. lbc_1, lbc_2 Loads/BCs TypeSelect load and boundary condition types, i.e. displacement, force MaterialSelect material set names, i.e. matl_1, matl_2 Element TopologySelect element topology, i.e. hex8, quad4 Element ShapeSelect element shape, i.e. 2D, 3D, bar Element IDSpecify element number range, e.g. start ID = 1, End ID = 327 MPC TypeSelect MPC type, i.e. RBAR, RBE2 BooleanPerform set operations on contents of groups, e.g. operation of union on groups group_A and group_B

S8-9 PAT318, Section 8, March 2005 DISPLAY A GROUP Choose Group/Post, or change the action to Post in the Group menu Choose which groups are to be posted in the current viewport A single mouse click will highlight one group Drag for continuous selection Hold down to select a set of continuous groups in series Hold down to select non-contiguous groups

S8-10 PAT318, Section 8, March 2005 MODIFYING GROUPS Select a Target Group for modification Use Rename… to rename the target group Member List to Add/Remove buttons and Global Add/Remove buttons actually modify the target groups members Selectable Members switch will allow the group to be visible and selectable. Turning this switch off will allow the group to be visible, but not selectable.

S8-11 PAT318, Section 8, March 2005 MOVING OR COPYING BETWEEN GROUPS Used to transfer entities between groups rapidly Select Move if you want the entities to be moved to the To Group Select Copy to duplicate entities in both From Group and To Group Indicate the entities you wish to transfer with the Selected Entities… button

S8-12 PAT318, Section 8, March 2005 SETTING CURRENT GROUP Set Current Make a group current by highlighting its name Making a group current will post it to the current viewport Entities created will be assigned to current group

S8-13 PAT318, Section 8, March 2005 TRANSFORMING GROUPS Transform members(entities) of groups Select transformation Method, i.e. Translate, Rotate Transform entities in Selected Group(s) Groups are selected under Select Group(s) Transform can be done using Move Move causes transformed (moved) entities to remain in original groups Loads/BCs and Element Properties can be transformed

S8-14 PAT318, Section 8, March 2005 TRANSFORMING GROUPS (Cont.) Transform can be done using Copy Copy causes transformed(copied) entities to be placed in chosen group, i.e. Original, New, Current Loads/BCs and Element Properties can be transformed

S8-15 PAT318, Section 8, March 2005 DELETING GROUPS Can delete any group except the current group Option given to delete name of group only (keep entities) Deleting entities in a group will remove them from database regardless of possible membership in other groups Entities which are exclusive to a deleted group will become orphaned entities

S8-16 PAT318, Section 8, March 2005 NOTES ON GROUPS A Group can be current without being posted If you are creating entities that are not being displayed, you can: Use Group/Post to check whether the current group is posted to the current viewport The only way to have more than one render style displayed simultaneously is to be in Group Display Mode Group Display is a useful tool when post- processing. Different results can be plotted using different render styles (deformed shape = wireframe, Von Mises Stress = Fringe, etc.)