4.3 View cuts in Abaqus/CAE

Product: Abaqus/CAE

Benefits: You can now use a planar view cut to display the interior of your model's geometry or mesh during the modeling process. This enhancement provides a faster and easier option for positioning or verifying interior components of your model and for analyzing the interior element quality of your mesh.

Description: Planar view cuts are now available in all Abaqus/CAE modules other than the Sketch module; view cut functionality was previously available only in the Visualization module. The newly supported view cuts share much of the same functionality as the view cuts used in postprocessing:

You can create and edit planar view cuts.
You can translate or rotate a planar view cut to locate an area of interest in the interior of your model.
View cuts persist only for your Abaqus/CAE session regardless of the module in which they were created.

You can display the model below the cut, on the cut, or above the cut; however, outside the Visualization module you cannot display the “below cut” and “above cut” portions at the same time, nor can you display free body cuts on the view cut or display multiple view cuts at the same time.

When you display the portion of the model on the cutting plane itself, Abaqus/CAE displays a “cap” that shows the intersection of the model and the view cut. Figure 4–3 shows the cap displayed on a view cut that displays the interior of a turbocharger model.

Figure 4–3 View cut cap displayed on a turbocharger model.

You can customize the appearance of this cap using the Cap Color options, which enable you to select either of two cap coloring styles:

Select to display the current colors of each component in the model on the cutting plane. Abaqus/CAE changes the coloring of the model components on the cutting plane dynamically as you move the plane or change the color coding selections.
Select to display the entire cap with a fixed color. Abaqus/CAE displays that color for all components on the cutting plane and does not change the color as you move the plane or change the color coding selections.

In modules other than the Visualization module you can display one view cut at a time; the Visualization module supports use of multiple active view cuts. The View Cut toolbar, shown in Figure 4–4, allows you to toggle the display of view cuts in modules other than the Visualization module and to customize their definition and display. The View Cut toolbar is displayed by default.

Figure 4–4 The View Cut toolbar.

Abaqus/CAE Usage:

All modules:
    ToolsView Cut

Reference:

Abaqus/CAE User's Manual

Chapter 77, “Cutting through a model”