Controlling beam profile display

If you use wire parts to model beams, you must create a beam section that refers to a beam profile, and you must assign the beam section to the wire part. In addition, you must assign a beam orientation to the wire part. You can then use the ViewPart Display Options and the ViewAssembly Display Options menu items to view a realistic display of the beam profile in parts and the assembly in the current viewport.

Related Topics
Defining profiles
Customizing geometry and mesh display
Controlling beam profile display for postprocessing

Context:

When beam profiles are displayed, Abaqus/CAE disables both view cuts and scaling and shrinking of the model. Displaying beam profiles is useful for checking that the correct profile has been assigned to a particular region and that the assigned beam orientation results in the expected orientation of the profile. For example, Figure 1 shows the box beam profiles displayed on the light-service crane described in Will link to gsa-bms-exacargocrane.

Figure 1. The cargo crane example with beam profiles displayed.

If you assign a general beam section to a wire, Abaqus/CAE displays the beam profile as an ellipse with a cross-sectional area and moments of inertia (I11 and I22) that match the values you specified. If you assign a truss section to a wire, Abaqus/CAE displays the truss profile as a circle with a cross-sectional area that matches the value you specified.

Abaqus/CAE does not render the tapering of beam profiles along their length. If your model includes tapered beam sections, Abaqus/CAE renders these beams using the beam's starting profile along its entire length. For more information about tapered beams, see Creating beam sections.

Abaqus/CAE renders beam profiles according to the current settings for color coding and translucency. When these settings change, the color and translucency of the beam profiles change as well.

  1. Locate the Render beam profiles option.

    From the main menu bar, select ViewPart Display Options or ViewAssembly Display Options. In the dialog box that appears, click the General tab.

  2. From the bottom of the dialog box, toggle on Render beam profiles to display beam profiles.

  3. If desired, apply a Scale factor to the beam profiles to increase or decrease their size. The default value is 1.

  4. Click OK to implement your changes and to close the dialog box.

    Abaqus/CAE displays the profile of the beam section with the appropriate dimensions and in the correct orientation. Your changes are saved for the duration of the session.