System Creation and Review

Systems are referred to as coordinate systems and may be rectangular, cylindrical, or spherical. Reference and analysis systems are supported. Reference systems transform geometric location or input vectors from the global system to a local system. Nodes, mass elements, forces, and other systems are eligible entities for a reference system. Analysis systems transform the output system of a node entity. Systems are built and referenced in the Systems panel.

Creating Systems

Use the Systems panel to create rectangular, cylindrical and spherical coordinate systems. Use this function when you want to define nodes, loads and constraints in a different coordinate system.

Reference systems: Used to define the entities. For example, nodes created or assigned to a reference system are defined with respect to their reference system. Reference systems are sometimes referred to as the local input coordinate system of an entity.

Analysis systems: Used to define analysis quantities at a node. These are useful for defining constraints oriented in non-global directions.

Mouse over the fields and select the subpanles for more information on the inputs needed for system creation.

Material orientation methods available in the Systems Panel > material orientation subpanel:

By System ID: This option assigns the ID of the coordinate system to the selected elements. How each analysis code interprets this information varies. For visualization purposes, the local x-axis of the selected system is projected onto the face of the shell elements. If you later modify the system, the element material directions change implicitly.

By System Axis: This function assigns a material angle to the selected elements or properties, which is defined as the angle between the node1-node2 direction and the projection of the selected local axis onto the surface of the shell element. How each analysis code interprets this information varies. For visualization purposes, the selected axis is projected onto the face of the shell elements. Any changes you subsequently make to the specified system has no effect on the elements.

By Vector:This function assigns a material angle, which is defined as the angle between the node1-node2 direction and the projection of the selected vector, onto the surface of the shell element, to the selected elements. How each analysis code interprets this information varies. For visualization purposes, the selected vector is projected onto the face of the shell elements.

By Angle:This function assigns the specified material angle, which is defined as an angle from the node1-node2 along the surface of the shell element, to the selected elements. How each analysis code interprets this information varies. For visualization purposes, HyperMesh rotates the node1-node2 edge of the element about the element normal through the defined angle.

System Collector

System collectors collect and organize systems. System collectors are created, edited, and deleted from the Model browser and are shown under the SystemCollector folder. Systems can be organized into a system collector using the Organize panel. Every system must be organized into one, and only one, system collector and therefore are mutually exclusive to a system collector. Newly created systems are automatically organized into the current system collector. The current system collector is shown bold in the Model browser. System collectors can also be card edited using the Model browser context menu on selected system collectors. System collectors have a display state, on or off, which control the display of all systems organized within the system collector in the graphics area. The export state of a system collector controls whether or not that system collector and all systems organized within the system collector are exported when the custom export option is utilized. The all export option is not affected by the export state of a system collector. The active and export states of system collectors can be controlled using the Entity State browser. Operations performed on a system collector affect systems within the system collector. For example, if you delete a system collector, the systems within the system collector are also deleted.