How to Show/Hide and Activate/Deactivate Parts of a Model
In the FEA Editor environment, there are two ways that you can have parts of a model displayed or not displayed:
the "Show" or "Hide" commands and the "Activate" or "Deactivate" commands. However, there is an important difference
between these two command sets:
- "Show" and "Hide" pertain to viewing the model. Hidden parts (from using the "Hide" command) will still be included
in the analysis.
- "Activate" and "Deactivate" pertain to analyzing the model. Deactivated parts (from using the "Deactivate" command)
will not be included in the analysis.
Each option provides benefit for certain situations. For example:
- Hiding a part of a model (by using the "Hide" command) might make viewing and selecting other parts more convenient
for operations such as adding constraints or loads.
- Deactivating a part (by using the "Deactivate" command) not only removes the part from the display, but would also
exclude it from the analysis, which might be desirable if you wanted to analyze only part of a model and not the entire assembly.
(If a model has only one part, the part cannot be deactivated.)
Here's how to show or hide and activate or deactivate a part:
- In the FEA Editor model tree, click on the "+" symbol next to "Model". A list of parts will appear.
- Right click on the part that you want to select. A pop-up menu of options for the selected part will appear as shown in Figure 1.
(Alternatively, you could left click on the part name in the model tree to select the part and then right click either on the
part name or anywhere in the working area to access the pop-up menu of options for the selected part.)
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| Figure 1: In the model tree, right-clicking on a part selects it and accesses a pop-up menu of options including the "Show",
"Hide", "Activate" and "Deactivate" commands.
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- In the pop-up menu, select the "Show" or "Hide" command or the "Activate" or "Deactivate" command depending on what operation you want to perform.
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Note: Alternatively, you could use the "Selection:Shape:Point" and "Selection:Select:Parts" commands to specify part
selection mode, click on the part in the model display of the working area to select it, and then right click anywhere in
the working area to access the pop-up menu of options for the selected part. However, once a part is deactivated,
it is no longer selected. The FEA Editor model tree must then be used to activate a deactivated part.
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The FEA Editor environment's capabilities to show or hide and activate or deactivate parts of a model provide
convenience and flexibility when viewing and analyzing any model. The following related topics provide additional options:
- The FEA Editor environment provides capabilities to show or hide surfaces of a model.
- The model trees in the CAD Solid Model and Superview IV Results environments can be used to show or hide parts
or surfaces of a model.
- Parts of a model can be displayed with transparency as described in
"How to Use Display Options for Individual Parts".
For more information about any of these capabilities, see the ALGOR User's Guide.
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