Customizing the display of labels in a free body cut

Click the Labels tab to customize the display of the numeric labels that appear with the vectors in a free body cut. You can customize the appearance of the force and moment vector labels separately; the Free Body Plot Options dialog box includes identical (but independent) options for Force and Moment vector labels.

Context:

You can toggle the display of numeric labels on and off, and you can customize the following settings for these labels:

  • The text color of the labels.

  • The font of the labels.

  • The format of the labels (scientific, fixed, or engineering).

  • The number of decimal places displayed for the label values.

In addition, you can establish threshold values for label display. If a vector's value is smaller than the threshold value, Abaqus/CAE hides its label.

  1. Locate the Labels options.

    Select OptionsFree Body from the main menu bar in the Visualization module, and click the Labels tab in the dialog box that appears.

  2. Click the Force tab or the Moment tab to customize label display for force vectors or moment vectors, respectively.

  3. Toggle on Display value next to vector symbol to show vector labels for the selected type of vector.

  4. Select the color of the vector labels for the selected type of vector.

    1. Click the Text color color sample .

      Abaqus/CAE displays the Select Color dialog box.

    2. Use one of the methods in the Select Color dialog box to select a new color. For more information, see Customizing colors.
    3. Click OK to close the Select Color dialog box.

  5. Select the font of the vector labels for the selected type of vector.

    1. Click Set Font.

      Abaqus/CAE displays the Select Font dialog box.

    2. Use one of the methods in the Select Font dialog box to select a new font, size, and style. For more information, see Customizing fonts.
    3. Click OK to close the Select Font dialog box.

  6. To change the format of the vector labels for the selected vector type, click the Number Format arrow and select one of the following formats:

    • Select Scientific to display legend values in scientific notation, which expresses legend values as a decimal value between 1 and 10 multiplied by a power of 10. When you select this format, the number 501,000 is displayed in the legend as 5.01e5.

    • Select Fixed to display legend values without using exponent values. When you select this format, the number 501,000 is displayed in the legend as 501000.00.

    • Select Engineering to select engineering notation, which expresses values in a similar format to scientific notation but allows exponent values that are multiples of three only. When you select this format, the number 501,000 is displayed in the legend as 501E3.

  7. Click the Decimal places arrows to specify the desired number of decimal places for each label.

  8. Specify a Threshold value for the selected type of vector label. Vectors with a value smaller than this threshold will have their labels hidden in the viewport. The default threshold for vector label display is 1E-006.

  9. Click OK to implement your changes and to close the Free Body Plot Options dialog box.

    By default, your changes are saved for the duration of the session and will affect all subsequent free body cuts plots in that viewport. If you want to retain your changes for subsequent sessions, save them to a file. For more information, see Saving customizations for use in subsequent sessions.