Assigning element properties

Element properties are assigned to objects as a set. Only the currently active set is assigned to selected objects by clicking button of the dialog. The general procedures of assigning data are explained in a previous section, and so will not be repeated here. Rules of object selection for property assignment and the display of the assignment are briefly explained below.

> Selecting objects to assign element properties

Element property sets can be assigned to various objects. However, the data sets a re eventually assigned to elements constituting the objects. For example, assigning a data set to a volume is equivalent to assigning the set to all elements within the volume. Therefore, the data sets can be assigned either to individual elements or to the kind of objects which contain the actual elements involved in the finite element analysis. The assignable objects differ depending on the analysis subject or the analysis class of element as summarized in the following table.

< Assignable objects for element properties >

> Overriding previous assignment of element properties

If you assign a data set to objects on which another data set has already been assigned, the newly assigned set will replace the old one. Thus, one data set at most is assigned to an element.

> Representation of element property assignment

Elements assigned with element properties are drawn in red. The elements assigned with the currently active data set are highlighted in dark red The assignment is always represented by boundary lines of each element, regardless of the rendering mode.