Node Set Manager

VCollab Pro users can group a set of nodes and use it in other functional modules using the Node Set Manager option under CAE menu. This reduces significant time in selection of nodes for different purposes.

Node Set : A Node Set is a group of nodes having a name given by the user.

A Node set can be used in

• masking color plot

• vector plot

• XYPlot

• Hotpot finder

Node Set Manager Panel

Click CAE|Node Set Manager to open the panel as shown below. There are three tabs , Creator tab, Manager tab and Filter Save tab.

Creator Panel

The various fields and options in the Creator tab are explained below.

Selection using mouse
Rectangle	Allows user to select nodes by user window
Point	Allows user to select nodes by picking
Polygon	Allows user to select nodes by user polygon
Box	Allows user to select a region by mouse and modify the box dimensions.
Visible Surface	A filter option to ignore hidden nodes.
Get Probe Label Nodes	Selects all visible probed node IDs.
Bound Box	A bound box with given distance is considered at each probe label. All nodes within each box are considered for node set.
Selection using highlighted parts
Selection Parts	User can choose any one of the following options. All nodes Connected element nodes All nodes and connected element nodes. Edge nodes Edge element nodes.
Get Nodes	Gets filtered nodes according to the selected constraint.
Selection using current selected nodes
Replace Current	Clears existing nodes and considers new neighborhood or proximity nodes.
Element	Considers adjacent element instead of adjacent nodes
Get Adjacent Nodes	Appends immediate adjacent nodes of current nodes.
Range	Proximity radius value of Node or element.
Element Proximity	A On/Off flag for Element or nodal proximity.
Get Proximity Nodes	Appends nodes within the proximity range.
From Resut Range…	Pops up result range dialog, user can select scalar result and set range. This function selects all the nodes those scalar result value falls within the user range.
Node set Name	Name of the new node set.
Create	Creates a node set with user defined name and final nodes displayed currently.
Clear	Clears displayed nodes.

Manager Panel

The various fields available in the Manager tab are explained below.

Model	Selects a CAE Model
List Box	Lists all node set names corresponding to the model
Show	Check/Uncheck to show/hide
Node set	Node set name mask for hotspot finder or color plot
Mask Type	Allows user to select mask type. (Inside or Outside or None are the types)
Info	Clicking on ‘…’ pops up nodeset info dialog.
Color Mask	Masking the node sets in contour.
Hotspot Mask	Masking the node sets in finding hotspots.
Show Mask Info	Displays Masking info in CAE Legend.
Probe Mask	Masks probe in the nodeset if enabled.
Show NodeSet Parts Only	Displays parts associated with nodesets. And Hides other parts.
Hide NodeSet Parts	Just hides the parts associated with the nodeset.
Edit	Allows user to edit the nodeset.
Delete	Delete all selected node sets.

Nodeset Info Panel

This panel is invoked when user click on the cell under Info header. This helps users to rename the nodeset, edit the color and add and store user information for the particular nodeset.

Nodeset Name	Allows to edit nodeset name and store.
Color	Allows user to edit the color and save.
User Info	Allows users to add and store information for a particular nodeset.
OK	Closes dialog and apply the modifications to parent dialog.

Types of Color Mask

VCollab provides following types in color masking.

• None - No masking

• No Result - Masked region will be in ‘No Result’ color

• Cull - Masked nodes and its associated elements will not be displayed.

• Transparent - Masked region will be displayed as semi transparent.

Steps to create a Node Set

Selection of Nodes

• Click CAE | NodeSet Manager… menu item, which pops up a dialog.

• Click a mouse selection mode, Rectangle / Point / Polygon.

• Rectangle mode

  • Use left mouse button to drag a window to select nodes.

  • Use right mouse button to drag window to deselect nodes.

    

• Point mode

  • Click on a node directly to select it.

  • Click a selected node with the middle button to deselect it.

• Polygon mode

  • Left click start defining a polygon.

  • Click points on the screen to build a polygon.

  • Right click to close the polygon.

    

  • The selected nodes are displayed in the viewer.

  • Use the Visible Surface option to filter hidden nodes in the current view.

• Box

  • Use left mouse to click and drag to define a box.

  • Each bound plane can be moved in or out using mouse click and drag.

    

  • Click the box button again to complete node selection within the box. Box will dissappear and nodes will be highlighted.

    

Appending Nodes from selected parts

• Select parts before using this option.

• Select

  • All Nodes to get all the nodes from the selected parts.

  • Connected Element Nodes to get nodes from the elements which connect selected parts and other parts.

  • All and Connected Element Nodes to get all nodes from selected part and connected element parts.

  • Edge Nodes to get nodes on the feature edges of selected parts. This depends on feature edge crease angle too.

  • Edge Element Nodes to get nodes from the elements of which has at least one feature edge.

  • Click Get Nodes to append the nodes.

    

Appending Nodes from probe

• Click the Add Probe Labels button to include all probed nodes.

• Select Visible Probe Labels option to ignore hidden probe label nodes.

Appending or Replacing selection using ‘From Selected Nodes : Neighbourhood’

• Click the Get Adjacent Nodes button to find adjacent nodes of selected nodes.

• Use Proximity Range to find nodes which falls within a given range of selected nodes.( i.e. Nodal Proximity)

• Select Element Proximity to find nodes which fall within a given range of elements (associated with selected nodes).

• Click Get Proximity Nodes to append the selection of nodes.

• Click Replace Current option to replace the selection instead of appending.

  

Clearing the selection

• Click Clear to clear the current selection of nodes.

Creating Node Set

• Provide a unique name to the selection of nodes (node set) in the text box given

• Click Create to create a node set whose name will be added to the list in the manager tab.

Steps to manage Node Set list

• Created Node Sets as explained above.

• Click CAE | NodeSet Manager… to open the NodeSet Manager panel.

• Select Manager tab.

• Select the CAE model for which node sets need to be managed

• Select a node set name.

Editing Node Set

• Click Edit to

  • modify the nodes in the set.

  • Clear and build new node set, Or

  • Filter nodes by removing nodes.

Deleting Node Sets

• Select a Node Set to be removed.

• Click Delete.

Toggling Node Set Attributes

• Click the Show check box in the Node Set list box to turn On / Off its visibility.

• Click the Mask check box in the Node Set list box to mask / unmask color plot for those nodes.

• Click Color cell to edit display color of the nodes.

  

  N/A refers to ‘No Masking’

  It refers to include in masking.

  Out refers to exclude the nodeset from masking.

• Click Color cell to edit display color of the nodes.

• Click Mask check box in the bottom of dialog to mask / unmask the color plot for those nodes.

  

  Combination of In and Out masked Nodesets

  Nodeset A with In mask type is refered as A Nodeset A with Out mask type is refered as A’

  

  

Node Sets in Hotspot Finder

• Open Hotspot Finder Settings tab under CAE Settings

  

• Click Mask…to open the dialog below where one can select or deselect Node Sets.

  

  

• Masking is not supported for Elemental Result.

• Users can select multiple Node Sets for masking during hotspot finding operation.

Steps for creating a nodeset from the result range

• Open Nodeset Manager dialog.

• Click Creator tab

• Click the From Result Range… button to open the dialog box as shown below

  

• Select the required Result, Instance and Derived scalar result.

• Check Min and Max check boxes and edit their values

  

• Click OK

• Nodes within the result range will be highlighted in the viewer.

  

• Click the Create button to create the nodeset.