Review Orientation

Select 1D, 2D, or 3D elements and display the coordinate system.

1. From the Elements ribbon, click the Review Element Orientation tool.

   
   
   Figure 2.

   The Orientation Review dialog opens.
2. Click the Elemental system tab.
3. Use the Elements selector to select elements.
4. Define display options.
5. Click Apply to show the system display.

1. From the Elements ribbon, click the Review Element Orientation tool.

   
   
   Figure 3.

   The Orientation Review dialog opens.
2. Click the Material system tab.
3. Use the Elements selector to select elements.
4. Define display options.
5. Click Apply to show the system display.

By default the material system aligns with the C1 direction of the element edge. C1 is the direction from node 1 to node 2 of the element. You can super impose the elemental system on the same plot of the material system.

Figure 4. . The blue and green arrows represent the elemental system (x and y) and the red and brown arrows represent the material system (x and y).

During CAD import of the composite data, each ply is associated with one or a separate system (one system for several plies or a system for each ply). You can select a ply and review its system.

1. From the Elements ribbon, click the Review Element Orientation tool.

   
   
   Figure 5.

   The Orientation Review dialog opens.
2. Click the Ply Directions tab.
3. Use the ply selector to select plies.
4. Define ply options.
   • To show fiber direction without the correction for drape, select the Fiber orientation checkbox.
   • To show fiber direction with drape correction, select the Drape fiber orientation checkbox.
   • To show a ply system for each ply, select the System checkbox.
5. Define display options.
6. Click Apply to show the ply system.

Figure 6. . The green arrows show the material X direction. The blue arrow shows the ply 5 fiber direction without drape. The red arrows shows ply 5 fiber direction with drape.

Display and correct element orientation.

1. From the Elements ribbon, click the Review Element Orientation tool.

   
   
   Figure 7.

   The Orientation Review dialog opens.
2. Click the Orientation tab.
3. Use the elements selector to select elements.
4. Select a function.
   • Choose By element to select an element with the correct orientation.
   • Choose By edge_node to select edge nodes with the correct direction.
   • Choose By System to select a system with the correct 1, 2, 3 direction.
   • Choose Vector to select a vector direction.
   • Choose Align N1-N2 dir to select a selection method.
5. Define display options.
6. Click Apply to show the element orientation.

The orientation of the rest of the elements will be determined based on the orientation or direction of the selected entity.

Figure 8. Display Normal and Reverse Normal 2D Elements.

Figure 9. Reverse Normals. The element already selected during the display normal will be reversed.

Figure 10. C1, C2, C3 Direction. This displays the element orientation of the nodes. C1 is the direction from node 1 to node 2 using the element connectivity order.

Figure 11. Resequence Nodes. Align C1 direction of 2D quad elements. Using the display C1 direction, some of the elements may not be aligned, as shown in the previous image. Select a guide element as the reference element and the rest of the element node connectivity will be changed to align the C1 direction.

Figure 12. Reverse 1D Element Direction. T function reverses the X direction (node 1 to node 2) of a 1D element. This image shows before reversing the elements.

Figure 13. After Reversing Elements

Indicate which ply angles need to be reversed for which elements when they do not match the ply normal.

CAD based ply angles and orientation are transformed with respect to the element material system for analysis solvers. Most of the time you can correct the element normal to match the ply normal from the CAD. There are times when it is not possible to change the element normal to match the ply normal, as shown in the diagram below. In these cases, you need to change the ply angles with respect to the element normal without changing the element normal. For example, a +45 degree ply will become a -45 degree ply if the element normal and ply normal are in opposite directions.

Figure 14.

Figure 15. . The ply normal does not match the element normal.

1. From the Elements ribbon, click the Review Element Orientation tool.

   
   
   Figure 16.

   The Orientation Review dialog opens.
2. Click the Ply Normals tab.
3. Use the ply selector to select the single ply for which the element normal needs to be reversed.
4. Use the Elements selector to select the elements that need to be reversed.
5. Under Noramls, specify how to display normal.
   • Choose Display to display normals.
   • Choose Reverse to reverse the display of the normal if they do not match.
6. Define display options.
7. Click Apply to show the ply normals.
8. Repeat these steps for each ply.
   The element normal for the ply is now reversed.

   Note: The actual element normal is not changed. The software takes a note (sets a flag internally) for a particular ply, and the angle needs to be reversed for that element, instead of reversing the normal. This is reflected in the solver data.

   
   
   Figure 17.