Free body cuts display the resultant forces and moments transmitted across a selected surface of your model. The Free Body toolset is available only in the Visualization module, and you can create a free body cut only when the current step and frame of the output database includes element force nodal output (NFORC).

This chapter explains how to use the Free Body toolset to create and delete free body cuts, display or hide them in the viewport, and customize several aspects of their appearance. The following topics are covered:

• “Resultant forces and moments on free body cuts in Abaqus/CAE,” Section 66.1

• “Creating a free body cut,” Section 66.2

• “Selection methods for free body cross-sections,” Section 66.3

• “Displaying, hiding, and highlighting free body cuts,” Section 66.4

• “Customizing free body cut display,” Section 66.5

Abaqus/CAE provides two other methods for displaying free body data:

• You can display free body data along an arbitrary plane through your model by toggling on free body display for a planar view cut. For more information, see “Understanding view cuts,” Section 79.1.

• You can display the free body nodal forces in a symbol plot to determine which nodes have an imbalance of forces or moments due to applied loads or to visualize the nodal force distribution on internal sections. For more information, see “Producing a symbol plot of free body nodal forces,” Section 44.4.