Solid Face Alignment Utility

The Solid Face Alignment utility uses the face1 to face2 direction to determine the default stack or thickness direction for Abaqus composite solid, gasket and continuum shell elements. Use this tool to align the face1 of selected solid elements (hexa and penta) to match with a planar face. As a result, the default stack (or thickness) directions for all selected elements become normal to a plane. In addition, you can review the face1 and default stack (or thickness) direction of selected solids. The utility has three buttons:

Button	Action
Align Faces	Click Align Faces to open the Element Selector panel, from which you can select solid elements. Selected elements are highlighted. When you click proceed, it creates a temporary skin of the selected solids and allows you to pick face elements from this skin. The selected faces are highlighted. When you click proceed, the face1 of all selected solid elements will match with the selected face element and a review of the stack (or thickness) direction will be shown.
Review	Opens the Element Selector panel, from which you can select solid elements. Selected elements are highlighted. When you click proceed, it highlights the face1 of selected solids and draws an arrow along the default stack (or thickness) direction of selected solids.
Reset	Deletes the stack (or thickness) direction arrows.