Creating Display Groups by Entities

You can create a display group that includes a subset of the entities in your simulation. For example, you can select entities by section assignment, by region, or by connectors or restraints.

See Also
About Display Groups
  1. Open the Display Groups context toolbar using one of the following methods:
    • Click the model, and select from the context toolbar that appears.
    • From the Display section of the action bar, click Display Groups .
  2. Click from the Display Groups context toolbar.
    The Display Groups dialog box appears and opens to the Select tab .
  3. From the Item options, select Entities.
    The Display Groups dialog box displays all of the assembly components in your model in a list in the main portion of the editor. You can sort the list by clicking any column heading.
  4. From the Method options, choose one of the following entity selection methods:
    OptionDescription
    Connector sections Displays every connector section in the model.
    Constraints Displays any specific constraint in the model.
    Note: Constraints can be visualized with associated elements or parts or with no associations.
    Coordinate systems Displays available coordinate systems and activates them locally in the results display.
    Materials Displays every material used in the model.
    Plies Displays every ply definition used in the model.
    Regions Displays every region defined in the model.
    Rigid Bodies Displays every specific rigid body defined in the model.
    Sections Displays every section assignment used in the model.
    Surfaces Displays every surface set defined in the model.
    Cut surfacesDisplays every named cut surface defined in the model.
    The Selection pane displays a list of the entities used in your model.
    Note: If you select an entity type that your model does not use (for example, if you select Plies and your model does not include any ply definitions), the dialog box informs you that the selected entity type is unavailable. If your model includes unnamed plies, the plies are listed as Layer n of #n.
  5. Optional: Filter the list by specifying name criteria in the Filter field. Wildcards (*) are permissible if you want to specify part of a name.
    The entities that satisfy your selection method and filtering criteria are displayed. The number of matching items is displayed in the top portion of the dialog box. You can sort the list of items by clicking the table heading.
  6. With Highlight checked, highlight the rows corresponding to the items that you want to display or hide. You can use multiselection to toggle multiple rows at the same time.
    Each component is displayed or hidden in the model as you make selections.
  7. Use the Boolean operators at the bottom of the dialog box to customize the selected items. The following options are available:
    OptionDescription
    Replace your display group and display all entities in the current viewport.
    Note: Replace All works for model parts and elements only. It does not show or hide the display of coordinate systems.
    Hide all the model components that are displayed in the current display group and display all the model components that were hidden.
    Note: The Invert display operator works for model parts and elements only. It does not show or hide the display of coordinate systems.
    The entities displayed change according to your selection.
  8. Use the Boolean operators at the top of the dialog box to customize the selected items. The following options are available:
    OptionDescription
    Replace the current viewport contents with your selection.
    Add your selection to the current viewport contents.
    Remove your selection from the current viewport contents. If your selection includes one or more elements or surfaces, the nodes connected to those items are also removed, provided that you have not specifically operated to include those nodes in the display group.
    Display only those items common to your selection and the display in the current viewport.
    Display only model components that are either in your selection or in the current viewport but not in both.
    The entities displayed change according to your selection.
  9. If you have constraints, regions, or surfaces, select With Associated Parts, With Associated Elements, or Without Associations to view the constraint, region, or surface with or without associations.
    The ability to isolate element faces associated with defined surfaces gives you more control.
  10. Optional: Click the Summary tab to review your selections.
  11. Click Close.