PAT312, Section 21, December 2006 S21-1 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation SECTION 21 GROUPS

PAT312, Section 21, December 2006 S21-2 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation

PAT312, Section 21, December 2006 S21-3 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation INTRODUCTION TO GROUPS l Allows geometric and FE entities to be divided into separate groups for various modeling and post- processing tasks l A group named default_group is created automatically when a new database is created l Newly created items automatically become members of the current group l Any number of groups can be created, and entities may belong to more than one group l Groups become permanent members of the database l Name of current group is displayed as part of Viewport banner

PAT312, Section 21, December 2006 S21-4 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation EXAMPLE OF GROUPS l What is a Group? l Any subset of model l A collection of entities l Separate groups for geometry & finite elements l Isolate subsets when working with large models TotalCenter Ends

PAT312, Section 21, December 2006 S21-5 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation GROUP TERMINOLOGY l Current l Group into which newly created entities are placed l Only one group may be current at a time l Target l Group that will be acted upon l Translate entities from the Target Group to the Current Group l Modify the appearance of the Target Group l Posted l Group is displayed in a viewport l A group may be posted to more than one viewport l More than one group may be posted to a viewport

PAT312, Section 21, December 2006 S21-6 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation GROUP MANIPULATION l Manipulate groups by clicking on Group in the main menu l Group options can be selected from the Group pull-down menu l Or by selecting the action choice on the group form

PAT312, Section 21, December 2006 S21-7 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation CREATING A GROUP l Choose Group/Create, or l Change the action to Create in the Group menu l Assign a new group name l Default is new group is set as the current group l New entities are assigned to the current group l Use the group contents options to select group member categories l Loads, boundary conditions, coordinate frames, fields, load cases and results are not group members

PAT312, Section 21, December 2006 S21-8 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation DISPLAYING A GROUP l Choose Group/Post, or l Change the action to Post l Select groups from the list l A single mouse click will highlight one group l Drag for continuous selection l Hold down to select a set of continuous groups in series l Hold down to select a non-contiguous list of groups

PAT312, Section 21, December 2006 S21-9 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation MODIFYING GROUPS l Select a Target group for modification l Use Rename… to rename the target group l Member List Add/Remove and global Add/Remove buttons actually modify the target groups members l Selectable Members switch will allow the group to be visible and selectable. l Turning this switch off will allow the group to be visible but not selectable.

PAT312, Section 21, December 2006 S21-10 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation MOVING OR COPYING BETWEEN GROUPS l Used to transfer entities between groups quickly l Select Move to move entities to the to group l Select Copy to duplicate entities in From and To groups l Indicate the entities you wish to transfer with the Selected Entities… button

PAT312, Section 21, December 2006 S21-11 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation SETTING CURRENT GROUP l Set Current l Make a group current by highlighting its name l Making a group current will post it to the current viewport l Entities created will be assigned to the current group

PAT312, Section 21, December 2006 S21-12 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation TRANSFORMING GROUPS l Transform (copy ) members (entities) of groups l Select the transform method l Translate, rotate, scale, etc. l Transform entities in the Target Group to the Current Group l Recall that newly created members are placed in the Current group l Can delete original entities and use their IDs for new entities l Element Properties and LBCs can optionally be copied, transformed or ignored

PAT312, Section 21, December 2006 S21-13 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation DELETING GROUPS l Can delete any group except the current group l Option given to delete name of group only (keep entities) l Deleting entities in a group will remove them from database regardless of possible membership in other groups l Entities which are exclusive to a deleted group will become orphaned entities

PAT312, Section 21, December 2006 S21-14 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation NOTES ON GROUPS l A group can be current without being posted l If you are creating entities that are not being displayed, you can l Use Group/Post to check if the current group is posted to the current viewport l The only way to have more than one render style displayed simultaneously is to be in Group Display Mode l Group Display is a useful tool when post- processing. Different results can be plotted using different render styles. (deformed shape in wireframe and Von Mises Stress in fringe, etc.)

PAT312, Section 21, December 2006 S21-15 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation

PAT312, Section 21, December 2006 S21-16 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation