Automatic group command

You can use the Automatic Group command to automatically create groups of meshes based on material type, property type, mesh color, beam cross section type, laminate property, element family, mesh collector type, and mesh type. You can create these groups from all the meshes in your model or individual meshes in your model.

Suppose your model contains beam and shell elements only. Some of the beam elements reference the material Steel and the others reference Aluminum_6061. The shell elements reference either Steel, Aluminum_6061, or Brass.

In the Automatic Groups dialog box, if you select the Group Meshes with Same Material check box only, the software creates three groups.

• The meshes that reference Steel

• The meshes that reference Aluminum_6061

• The meshes that reference Brass

If you select both the Group Meshes with Same Material check box and the By Element Family (0D,1D,2D,3D) check box, the software creates five groups.

• The meshes that reference Steel

• The meshes that reference Aluminum_6061

• The meshes that reference Brass

• The meshes associated with the beam elements

• The meshes associated with the shell elements

To refine the contents of automatically created groups, you can use the Boolean algebra commands in the Group Manager dialog box.

For example, to create a group that contains all the meshes of beam elements that reference Steel, you can intersect the group that contains all the meshes of elements that reference Steel and the group that contains all of the meshes of beam elements.

When you use the Automatic Group command, the software names the groups and assigns a unique numerical label to each group.

For example, when you select the Group Meshes with Same Material check box, the software names the groups by prepending the default text string of MAT- to the material name. Thus, in the previous example, the group names are as follows:

• MAT-Steel for the group of meshes whose elements reference Steel

• MAT-Aluminum_6061 for the group of meshes whose elements reference Aluminum_6061

• MAT-Brass for the group of meshes whose elements reference Brass

You can change the default text string for each automatic group option by entering a text string in the corresponding group name prefix box.

For example, you can change the default text string for the Group Meshes with Same Material option by entering a text string in the Material Group Name Prefix box.

For more information, see Create groups with the Automatic Group command.

Where do I find it?

Application	Pre/Post
Prerequisite	A FEM or Simulation file as the work part and displayed part
Command Finder	Automatic Groups
Simulation Navigator	Right-click the Groups node→Automatic Group

How do I

Create a group by manually selecting the contents

Create a group automatically from an element quality check

Create groups with the Automatic Group command

Copy a group

Edit a group

Apply a force to the entities in an existing group

Use groups to control model visibility

Learn more

Groups

Group Elements by Boundary

Creating new groups from existing groups using Boolean operations

Group selection options

Smart selection methods with groups

Controlling the display of nodes in groups

Quick links

Command reference

Pre/Post video examples

Bulk Entry Descriptions

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Automatic group command, Simcenter 3D 2021.1 Series

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