Customizing general display options for free body cuts

The options on the General tabbed page of the Free Body Plot Options dialog box enable you to toggle the display of force vectors and moment vectors for free body cuts. You can also customize vector display by showing only the resultant vector or showing component vectors in the x-, y-, or z-directions for both force and moment values.

  1. Locate the General options.

    Select OptionsFree Body from the main menu bar in the Visualization module.

  2. Toggle on Show forces to display force vectors for all free body cuts in the current viewport.

  3. Toggle on Show moments to display moment vectors for all free body cuts in the current viewport.

  4. Toggle on Use constant-length arrows to display all force and moment values with arrows of the same length. When this option is not selected, the force and moment vectors are displayed with lengths according to their magnitude.

  5. From the Vector display options, select one of the following options:

    • Select Resultant to display only the resultant force and moment vectors.

    • Select Component to display the component force and moment vectors in the x-, y-, or z-directions.

  6. Click OK to implement your changes in the current viewport and to close the Free Body Plot Options dialog box.

    By default, your changes are saved for the duration of the session and will affect all subsequent free body cuts plots in that viewport. If you want to retain your changes for subsequent sessions, save them to a file. For more information, see Saving customizations for use in subsequent sessions.