What Is a Display Body?
A display body is a part instance that is used for display only. None of the nodes or elements of the instance take part in the analysis, but they are still available during postprocessing. The motion of the display body is governed by the motion of the associated reference nodes, if any. It behaves like a rigid body since the relative positions of the nodes and elements of the part instance remain constant throughout a simulation. The nodes and elements of the part instance cannot be used to define prescribed conditions, interactions, constraints, etc. Section properties do not have to be assigned to the elements.
A display body is useful in cases where the physical model is different from the idealized model used for the analysis. An idealized model may be difficult to visualize; it may help to include more details in the model for realistic postprocessing purposes. Display bodies allow this without increasing the analysis time.
Display bodies are especially useful in mechanism or multibody dynamics problems where rigid parts interact with each other via connectors. In such cases a part can be represented by a very simple rigid body and a more complex display body. In this case, the rigid body can be as simple as just a node, along with mass and rotary inertia elements attached to that node.
Display bodies can also be used to model stationary objects that are not involved in the analysis but aid in visualization.