Selection recipes

Video: Use selection recipes with boundary conditions

A selection recipe lets you select one or more finite element or geometric entities based on a set of rules that you specify. For example, you might create a selection recipe that selects all polygon faces named FORCE, and then apply a force load to that selection recipe. If you subsequently name a face FORCE, that face is automatically included in the selection recipe, and the force load is automatically applied to that face.

You can use several strategies to select the entities of interest.

Strategy	Description
Bounding Volume	Selects all points; nodes; elements; element edges or faces; meshes; curves; polygon edges, faces, or bodies; or any combination of those entities within a defined area.The position of a bounding volume typically remains constant unless you edit it. However, with the arbitrary bounding volume method, the size of the bounding volume adjusts automatically if the size of the polygon body or 3D mesh changes.
Attribute	Selects all points, curves, or polygon edges, faces, or bodies that have one or more particular attributes (such as the same name or color).You can also use an attribute selection recipe to select all of a particular type of entity by using only a wildcard for the name. The selection recipe selects all of the specified type of entities, whether or not they have a name.You can define the entity name and other attributes in the part, FEM, or Simulation file. In addition, when you create or edit an attribute selection recipe, or when you right-click an existing single-strategy attribute selection recipe in the Simulation Navigator, you can apply the attributes in the selection recipe to selected entities in the model. You can do this only when the Apply Attributes from Selection Recipe check box is selected in the Customer Defaults dialog box and when the selection recipe does not include any wildcards or select any entities.Note: When you apply attributes from a selection recipe to the model:The attributes are applied to the selected entities only in the current work part.All the attributes in the selection recipe are applied, which might overwrite an existing attribute. For example, you might create a selection recipe to select all blue polygon faces named FORCE. If you apply those attributes to a polygon face named LOAD, the existing name is overwritten.If an attribute specifies multiple discrete values, you can apply only the first or last value in the series to each selected entity. If an attribute specifies a range of values, you can apply only the low or high value.
Label Range	Selects a range of nodes or elements identified by their labels.
Single Label, Coordinate, or Point	Selects a node that you manually specify or that is near a particular coordinate or existing point.Note: If you delete the node or point associated with the selection recipe, the selection recipe is deleted automatically.
Proximity	Selects all nodes or points that are near a particular point, mesh point, curve, or polygon edge or face.Note: If you delete all of the objects associated with the selection recipe, the selection recipe is deleted automatically.For example, if the recipe selects all nodes near two points, and you delete one of the points, the selection recipe continues to select all nodes near the remaining point. However, if you delete both points, the selection recipe is deleted.

For each selection recipe strategy, you can specify whether to select the entities from the entire model, or from only a particular mesh, polygon body, or component FEM. (This parameter is referred to as the input filter.) For example, if the same node ID exists in two component FEMs, you can limit the selection recipe to the appropriate component.

Selection recipes appear under the Selection Recipes node in the Simulation Navigator, as well as under the Groups node for a post view in the Post Processing Navigator.

Stacked selection recipes

You can create a selection recipe that uses a single strategy to select entities, or you can create a stacked selection recipe that combines multiple strategies. For example, you might use a bounding volume strategy to select all polygon faces within a portion of the model. You might then add an attribute strategy to the same selection recipe to select only those polygon faces within the bounding volume that have a particular name.

After you add a strategy to a stacked selection recipe, you can typically add adapters to widen or narrow the scope of the selection. Some adapters are similar to the smart selectors that you can use when selecting entities in the graphics window. Other adapters let you filter the selected entities based on such criteria as their physical property, material type, element type, element thickness, volume, area, or length. For example, you might use a single-label strategy to select a particular node. You might then add a related elements adapter to select all the elements connected to that node, and then add an element filter to select only those elements that are at least 1 mm thick.

When you create a stacked selection recipe, each additional strategy or adapter builds on the previous one. Therefore, you can delete only the last strategy or adapter in the stack. In addition, although you can edit certain aspects of the preceding strategies or adapters (such as the node label or dimensions of a bounding volume), you cannot change the input filter or type of entity selected unless you delete all the subsequent strategies and adapters.

Using selection recipes

After you create a selection recipe, you can use it to perform a wide variety of tasks:

• Hide or show the selection recipe entities in your model, as well as display them in a different color.

• Create meshes and mesh controls for the entities in the selection recipe.

• Apply loads or constraints to the entities in the selection recipe.

• Create bolt connections.

• Create connection elements to attach component FEMs, or their alternate representations, in assembly FEMs.

• Identify, annotate, and graph iterated results for finite element entities in post-processing results.

Note:

Some limits exist in the use of selection recipes:

• When you apply loads or constraints or create meshes, you can use only those selection recipes that select the appropriate type of entities.For example, you can apply pressure to a selection recipe that selects element faces, meshes, or polygon faces, but not to one that selects only nodes.When you define a load or constraint or create a mesh, the Type Filter list in the Top Border bar indicates which entities are supported. Make sure that your selection recipe selects one of those entities.

• You cannot use a bounding volume selection recipe that selects meshes to create another mesh.

• If a bounding volume selection recipe selects multiple types of entities, the load, constraint, or mesh uses only the first appropriate entity that it finds.For example, if a bounding volume selects both element faces and polygon faces, and you use the selection recipe to apply pressure, the load would be applied to only one of those entity types, such as only the polygon faces.

Importing and exporting selection recipes

For Simcenter Nastran, Abaqus, ANSYS, and LS-DYNA solutions, when you right-click the solution in the Simulation Navigator and choose Advanced Solver Options, you can specify whether or not to include selection recipes in the solver input deck. When you do this and then use the deck with other applications, the solver set can automatically update if the model changes.

In addition, if you have a third-party model that contains nodelabel, position, or inspace hard points, you can create an XML file that contains information about those hard points, and then import that XML file into a Pre/Post model. When you do that, you can either create a new single-label, coordinate, or attribute selection recipe for each hard point, or you can replace the information associated with an existing selection recipe of the same type and name. You can also export single-label, coordinate, and point selection recipes, as well as certain types of attribute selection recipes, to an XML file. You can then use that hard point information as reference locations in Assembly Composer, other software packages, or for physical tests.

For more information, see Importing hard points as selection recipes and Exporting selection recipes as hard points.

Where do I find it?

Application	Pre/Post
Prerequisite	A Simulation file or FEM file as the work part and displayed part
Command Finder	Selection Recipe Stacked Selection Recipe

Learn more

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Boundary conditions

Identifying results

Annotating post views

Graphing results across multiple iterations

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Selection recipes, Simcenter 3D 2021.1 Series

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