Displaying a cut section and its resultant force and moment vectors

To display the cut section of your model, you activate a view cut and choose whether to display the model on the cut, below the cut, and/or above the cut. The cut itself is not visible. In the Visualization module you can display the model both below the cut and above the cut; in all other modules, you can display one view or the other.

See Also
Using the extended finite element method to model fracture mechanics
Creating or editing a view cut

Context:

In the Visualization module you can activate multiple view cuts; in all other modules, only one view cut can be active at a time. For each view cut in the Visualization module, you can also display the resultant force and moment based on a display group, an element set, or the entire model. You can specify free body options that are common to all view cuts or that are specific to a particular view cut.

For view cuts displaying data from an output database, you can also display the resultant force and moment vectors at regular intervals through the model for the selected view cut. For more information, see Customizing display and calculation of resultant force and moment on the active view cuts.

The activation status of each view cut persists only for the duration of your session. If you want to retain this view cut activation status for subsequent sessions, you can save these data to an XML file, to the model database, or to an output database. For more information, see Managing session objects and session options.

  1. From the main menu bar, select ToolsView CutManager.

    The View Cut Manager appears with a list of all the view cuts that have been created during the current session. A check mark appears in the Show column to the left of the active view cut.

  2. Click the check box in the Show column to the left of the view cut you wish to activate or deactivate.

    The active view cut is used to cut through the model in the current viewport.

    Tip: You can also activate or deactivate a view cut using one of the following methods:

    • In any module other than the Visualization module, click the tool in the View Cut toolbar.

    • In the Visualization module, click the tool in the toolbox.

    If no view cut is active, selecting either of these tools will activate the first view cut in the list in the View Cut Manager (usually the default X-plane cut). If a view cut is active, selecting this tool will deactivate the cut.

  3. Click the check boxes in the Model columns to the right of the view cut to display the model below , on , and/or above the cut (these positions are not mutually exclusive).

    The selected portion of the model is displayed in the viewport.

  4. If you are working in the Visualization module, click the check box under the icon in the Model columns for the active view cut to display the resultant force and moment along that view cut, acting on the visible component. For example, you will see equal and opposite resultant force and moment vectors when you switch from the “Show below cut” option to the “Show above cut” option.

    To specify free body options for a particular view cut, click the icon to the right of the view cut for which you want to specify options.

    Note:

    The View Cut Options (common to all view cuts or specific to a particular view cut) enable you to control three aspects of the resultant force and moment display on view cuts. You can compute the resultant force and moment based on a display group, an element set, or the whole model; and you can adjust the summation point and component resolution. You can enable display of the resultant force and moment on a view cut for solid geometry, composite solid sections, shell sections, or beam sections. For resultant forces and moments to be displayed, the output database must include element force nodal output (NFORC) for composite solid sections and section force (SF) and section moment (SM) output for shell sections and beam sections. For more information, see Customizing display and calculation of resultant force and moment on the active view cuts.

  5. In the Visualization module, toggle on Allow for multiple cuts to enable the display of multiple view cuts.