Section Browser and Parameter Definition

The Section browser presents a hierarchical view of all of the beamsections and beamsection collectors in your database. HyperBeam displays this hierarchy in a standard tree structure of beamsections residing inside of beamsection collectors. Click the ID or config column headings to sort the beamsections and beamsection collectors alphabetically. The Config column lists the type of section: Shell, Solid, Generic and various types of standard sections including Channel, I-Sect, L-Sect, and so on.

Use the Section browser to find a particular section of your model for displaying or editing. When you click on a beamsection, it becomes highlighted and the results are displayed in the Results pane. Additionally, when you click on a beamsection, its parameters are listed and available for editing in the Parameter Definition window.

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Context Menu

The right-click context menu contains options for creating, editing, deleting, scaling, welding and exporting beamsections.

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The following options are available from the HyperBeam View context menu:

Option

Description

Create

Create a new beam collector, as well as standard, shell, solid and generic beamsections.

Note:

The only standard section libraries listed are those of the current HyperMesh user profile and the HyperMesh general standard section library.

Edit

Opens the Edit Shell Section dialog. The dialog contains two tabs: Edit Parts and Reorient.

•	From the Edit Parts tab you are able to control the naming, thickness, and connectivity order of each part in the beam section. The Connectivity Order simply lists the order of the vertices that define the highlighted part.

•	From the Reorient tab you are able to reposition the section with respect to the local axis.

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Note:

This option is only available for shell sections.

Scale

Opens the Scale section dialog, from which you can scale the entire beam section by a given scale factor.

Copy/Cut/Paste

Choose one or multiple beamsections to copy or cut, and then select a beamsection collector to paste the beamsections to.

Delete

Deletes the selected beam collector or standard, shell, solid and generic beam section.

Rename

Activates the Entities column of the selected beam collector or beamsection, allowing you to enter a new name.

Make Current

Flags which beam collector new beamsections will be created in.

Note:

This option is only available for beamsection collectors.

Collapse All

Closes all of the folders in the Section browser, so that only the beamsection collectors are displayed.

Expand All

Opens all of the folders in the Section browser, exposing every beamsection nested in every beamsection collector.

Auto-weld

Opens the Auto Weld dialog, from which you can set the tolerance and thickness for the welds. If the segments or any part are within the tolerance, Auto-weld will create a new part between them with the given thickness. New vertices might need to be created to make the connection, which should be centered at the area where the segments are the closest. If the thickness is given as 0.0, the connection will be set to a thickness equal to its length.

Auto-weld can also be accessed by selecting the auto-connect shell sections option, from the HyperBeam panel > section utils subpanel.

Note:

This option is only available for shell sections.

Export CSV...

Captures the beamsection name, each part within the section, its thickness and each vertex number, and positions it all into a CSV file. Multiple shell sections can be selected and exported using CTRL+left-click, or by selecting Export CSV - all shell sections from the File menu.

This option is particularly useful when you select Import CSV from the File menu, which will read the HyperBeam’s CSV format and create new shell beamsections. The Import CSV and Export CSV options allow you to read and write to HyperBeam without using a .hm file.

Note:

This option is only available for shell sections.

Parameter Definition Window

The Parameter Definition window is located below the Section browser. In this window you can edit the dimensions of standard, shell, and solid sections, and you can edit the Y and Z values for vertices of shell and solid sections. The graphics area is updated and the dimension values are automatically saved upon each entry. Use TAB and SHIFT+TAB to quickly navigate through the parameters.

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Standard Section Parameter Definition Window

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Shell Section Parameter Definition Window