Controlling the display of model entities

The Entity Display options in the ODB Display Options dialog box allow you to control the display of symbols representing the following entities in your model:

  • boundary conditions applied during the analysis,

  • connectors used in the model (the highlighting of endpoints, the display of local orientation axes associated with each connector, and the display of connector type labels can be controlled individually),

  • coordinate systems written to the current output database or created in the Visualization module during the current session, and

  • point elements, including reference points, mass and inertia elements, springs and dashpots, spot welds and distributing coupling (DCOUP*) elements, tracer particles, continuum particle elements, and discrete particle elements.

Model entity display is plot state–independent. Abaqus/CAE displays model entity symbols for the current step and frame of your output database. You can customize the appearance of the model entity symbols in the Visualization module only by changing their size.

Related Topics
Creating boundary conditions
Understanding constraints
Understanding connectors
Creating coordinate systems during postprocessing
Why are datum coordinate systems so important?

Context:

For information on the symbols representing boundary conditions, see Understanding symbols that represent prescribed conditions; for information on the symbols representing connectors, see Understanding symbols that represent interactions, constraints, and connectors. For information on controlling the display of these entities in assembly-related modules, see Controlling the display of attributes.

Tip: You can also control the display of connectors using display groups; each connector is listed as an element set. See Creating or editing a display group for more information on display groups.

Only session coordinate systems and reference points are displayed by default. The display of model entities can affect performance significantly. To maximize the performance of Abaqus/CAE, be selective about the entities you choose to display.

  1. From the main menu bar, select ViewODB Display Options. Click the Entity Display tab in the dialog box that appears.

    The entity display options become available.

  2. Toggle the entities that you want to display. Only the entities that you select (if they have been defined for the current model) will appear in the viewport.

  3. If desired, drag the Symbol size slider left or right to modify the size of the symbols in the viewport.

  4. Click Apply to implement your changes.

    The plot in the current viewport changes to reflect your specification.

    By default, your changes are saved for the duration of the session and will affect all subsequent plots in the current viewport and in any new viewports created from the current viewport. If you want to retain the changes you applied for subsequent sessions, save them to a file. For more information, see Saving customizations for use in subsequent sessions.