Reversing the surface normal direction of shell elements

Select MeshEdit from the main menu bar to reverse the surface normals of selected shell elements. The elements can be either quadrilaterals or triangles. During the procedure to reverse the surface normals, Abaqus/CAE displays the part using the shaded render style, and the front and back faces of each shell element appear in different colors. If you change the direction of the surface normal in a region, Abaqus/CAE does not change the orientation of prescribed conditions or named surfaces applied to that region.

Related Topics
What can I do with the Edit Mesh toolset?

  1. Enter the Mesh module.

  2. From the Object field in the context bar, select Part and select a part from the list.

  3. From the main menu bar, select MeshEdit.

    Abaqus/CAE displays the Edit Mesh dialog box.

    Tip: You can also display the Edit Mesh dialog box using the tool, located at the bottom of the Mesh module toolbox.

  4. In the dialog box, do the following:

    1. In the Category field, select Element.
    2. From the Method list, select Flip Normal.

      Abaqus/CAE displays the part using the shaded render style. The front of each element is colored brown, and the back of each element is colored purple.

  5. From the prompt area, choose the type of region, Geometry or Mesh, and toggle Highlight conflicting edges to display or hide a yellow border between connecting elements that have conflicting normals.

  6. From the prompt area, choose the selection method and select the shell region or orphan shell elements whose normals you want to reverse. For more information, see Selecting the elements to edit.

  7. When you have finished selecting regions or elements, select Done from the prompt area.

    If you selected geometric regions, Abaqus/CAE changes the normals of the elements and returns to Step 5.

  8. If you selected orphan elements, choose a method for reversing the surface normal:

    • Click Flip all to reverse the normal of all selected elements.

    • Click Select normal to change the normals of the selected elements so that they point in the same direction as the normal of a reference element that you specify.

  9. If you chose Select normal in the previous step, do the following:

    1. In the viewport, select the reference element.
    2. In the prompt area, click OK.

      Abaqus/CAE changes the normals of the selected elements so that they point in the same direction as the reference element normal and returns to Step 5 so you can make more selections.

  10. Click mouse button 2 to exit the procedure.

    Abaqus/CAE reverts to the render style that was selected prior to starting the procedure to reverse the surface normals.

Tip: If you make a mistake while reversing the surface normals of orphan elements, click Undo in the Edit Mesh dialog box to undo the change. Abaqus/CAE restores the original surface normals for the selected elements. If you make a mistake while reversing the surface normals of native elements in a geometric region, select the region and reverse the normals again.