Selecting the elements to edit

When you are selecting the elements to edit, Abaqus/CAE displays a menu in the prompt area that allows you to choose the technique that you will use to select the elements. The techniques allow you to select individual nodes or groups of adjacent elements.

Related Topics
Selecting objects within the current viewport
What can I do with the Edit Mesh toolset?

  1. Use one of the following methods to select the elements that you want to edit:

    Selecting individual elements

    1. From the menu in the prompt area, select Individually.

    2. Select an element that you want to renumber, or drag-select a group of elements.

    3. ShiftClick on additional elements to add them to your selection.

    4. If necessary, CtrlClick on selected elements to remove them from your selection.

    Selecting elements using the angle method

    1. From the menu in the prompt area, select by angle.

    2. Enter an angle (from 0° to 90°), and select an element. Abaqus/CAE selects every element on element faces adjacent to the selected element until the angle between the element faces is equal to or exceeds the angle that you entered. (See Using the angle and feature edge method to select multiple objects, for more information.)

    3. After you use the by angle method, you can ShiftClick on additional elements to add them to your selection or CtrlClick on selected elements to remove them from your selection. (See Combining selection techniques, for more information.)

    Selecting elements using the feature edge method

    1. From the menu in the prompt area, select by feature edge.

    2. Enter an angle (from 0° to 90°). Abaqus/CAE identifies all the feature edges in your model by finding all the element edges where the angle between two adjacent element faces is greater than the angle specified.

    3. Select an element edge. Abaqus/CAE follows the feature edge that passes through the selected element edge or node. The feature edge is truncated if another feature edge intersects it at an angle greater than the angle specified in the previous step.

    4. Abaqus/CAE selects all the elements along the feature edge. (See Using the angle and feature edge method to select multiple objects, for more information.) Alternatively, you can select the node at the intersection of multiple feature edges, and Abaqus/CAE selects the elements along all these feature edges.

    5. After you use the by feature edge method, you can ShiftClick on additional elements to add them to your selection or CtrlClick on selected elements to remove them from your selection. (See Combining selection techniques, for more information.)

    Specifying an existing element set

    1. Click Sets on the right side of the prompt area. Abaqus/CAE displays the Region Selection dialog box containing a list of element sets that you have created.

    2. Select the set of elements that you want to renumber, and click Continue.

    Note:

    The default selection method is based on the selection method you most recently employed. To revert to the other method, click Select in Viewport or Sets on the right side of the prompt area.

  2. When you have finished selecting elements, select Done from the prompt area.