Abaqus/CAE User's Manual  


2.2.3 Components of the toolbars

The toolbars contain convenient sets of tools for managing your files, filtering object selection, and viewing your model. Items in a toolbar are shortcuts to functions that are also available from the main menu bar. By default, Abaqus/CAE displays all of the toolbars in a row underneath the main menu bar. Abaqus/CAE may place some toolbars in a second row depending on your display resolution and the size of the main window. The toolbars are shown in the following figure:

You can change the location of a toolbar using the toolbar's grip, as indicated in the above figure. Clicking and dragging the grip moves the toolbar around the main window. If you release the toolbar grip while the toolbar is over one of the four available docking regions of the main window (see Figure 2–2), Abaqus/CAE “docks” the toolbar; a docked toolbar has no title bar and does not obstruct any other portion of the main window.

Figure 2–2 Available docking regions for toolbars.

If you release the toolbar grip while the toolbar is not near a docking region, Abaqus/CAE creates a floating toolbar with a title bar. A floating toolbar obstructs other items in the main window (see Figure 2–3); however, a floating toolbar can be positioned outside of the Abaqus/CAE main window.

Figure 2–3 Floating toolbars.

Clicking mouse button 3 on a toolbar grip displays a menu that lets you specify the location and format of the toolbar:

You can also hide toolbars and create custom toolbars that include shortcuts to additional functions. For more information, see Chapter 58, “The Customize toolset.”

To obtain a short description of a tool in a toolbar, place the cursor over that tool for a moment; a small box containing a description, or “tooltip,” will appear. To obtain the name of a toolbar, place the cursor over the toolbar grip for a moment.

The Abaqus/CAE toolbars contain the following functionality:

File

The File toolbar allows you to create, open, and save model databases; to open output databases; and to print viewports. For more information, see Part II, “Working with Abaqus/CAE model databases, models, and files,” and Chapter 8, “Printing viewports.”

View Manipulation

The View Manipulation toolbar allows you to specify different views of the model or plot. For example, you can pan, rotate, or zoom the model or plot using these tools. For more information, see Chapter 5, “Manipulating the view and controlling perspective.”

View Options

The View Options toolbar allows you to specify whether or not perspective is applied to your model. For more information, see “Controlling perspective,” Section 5.5.

Render Style

The Render Style toolbar allows you to specify whether the wireframe, hidden line, or shaded render style will be used to display your model. In addition, you can switch between displaying the geometry of an Abaqus/CAE native part and the meshed representation (if it exists) of the same part. In the Visualization module the Render Style toolbar also includes the filled render style tool. For more information, see “Displaying a native mesh,” Section 17.3.11, and “Choosing a render style,” Section 52.2.1.

Selection

The Selection toolbar allows you to enable or disable object selection by toggling on the arrow icon. You can use the list to the right of the arrow to limit the types of objects that you can select. The Selection toolbar is available only when there are no active procedures running in a viewport. For more information, see “Selecting objects before choosing a procedure,” Section 6.3.7.

Query

The Query toolbar allows you to obtain information about the geometry and features of your model, to probe model and X–Y plots for output data, and to perform stress linearization on your results. For more information, see Chapter 68, “The Query toolset”; Chapter 48, “Probing the model”; and Chapter 49, “Calculating linearized stresses.”

Display Group

The Display Group toolbar allows you to selectively plot one or more model or output database items. For example, you can create a display group that contains only the elements belonging to specified sets in your model. For more information, see Chapter 74, “Using display groups to display subsets of your model.”

Color Code

The Color Code toolbar allows you to customize the colors of items in the viewport and change the degree of their translucency.

For color coding, you can create color mappings that assign unique colors to different elements of a display. For example, when using a part instance color mapping, each part instance in a model will appear as a different color. For more information, see Chapter 73, “Color coding geometry and mesh elements.”

For translucency, you can click the arrow to the right of the tool to reveal a slider, which you can drag to make the display colors more transparent or more opaque. For more information, see “Changing the translucency,” Section 73.3.

Field Output

The Field Output toolbar allows you to select the field output variable for display in the viewport. The selections are limited, but the tool provides access to the Field Output dialog box, if needed. For more information, see “Using the field output toolbar,” Section 38.4.2.

Viewport

The Viewport toolbar allows you to create and align viewports, link viewports, and create viewport annotations. For more information, see “Managing viewports and viewport annotations from the Viewport toolbar,” Section 4.2.2. The Viewport toolbar is not displayed by default.

Views

The Views toolbar allows you to apply a custom view to the model in the viewport. For more information, see “Custom views,” Section 5.2.8. The Views toolbar is not displayed by default.


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