Product: Abaqus/CAE
Benefits: You can now assign a mesh stack direction for solid parts that is independent of the sweep direction, and the cells need not be swept or bottom-up meshed. You can assign a single stack orientation to multiple cells. In addition, the shell/element normal and beam/truss tangent assignment tools are now available in the Mesh module.
Description: Continuum shell, cohesive, cylindrical, and gasket elements all include directional properties that depend on the stack orientation of the elements. You can now assign a stack direction based on the orientation of a reference face. If the cells are already meshed, Abaqus/CAE changes the stack direction of the elements as needed. If there is no mesh or a partial mesh, Abaqus/CAE uses the reference face orientation to define the stack direction of the elements as you mesh the part. As shown in Figure 12–4, the mesh stack orientation can be completely separate from the sweep direction for a swept part. The stack orientation shown by the red arrow, with the top element faces colored brown, is perpendicular to the sweep paths (black arrows) that could be used for this part.
You can assign mesh orientations using the Mesh menu, the 
tool in the Mesh module toolbox, or the Assign Stack Direction button located in the Mesh Controls dialog box. You can assign a mesh stack orientation to solid cells with any element shape except tetrahedral.
The Element Normal and Element Tangent options, previously available only in the Property module, are also included in the new Mesh
Orientation menu.
Mesh module: Mesh
