Learning Forum

[spamanon]

Hello,

I am looking at a large model with many different types of elements. I want to be able to select a specific element and then list its attributes. For this purpose, I use the command esel,s,p to graphically click on the element of interest. The problem is that when I click on an element in the graphic window, an element behind the one I clicked on gets selected. It seems that no matter where I click on the element of interest, the element behind it, hidden from view even, gets selected. What am I doing wrong?

[Matt Mehalic]

 

Hello Spamanon,
graphical picking of elements with ESEL,S,P can be challenging in a complex model with many element types. The element selection relies on cursor placement as close to the desired element centroid as possible. This may be even more challenging if you are in an isometric or other non-orthogonal view. One technique you can try is to click and hold the left mouse button down as you pan over the model with the cursor…this will give a highlight preview of the element to be selected….then when you think that’s the one you want, release the left mouse button.

If you state your model has many different element types, I interpret this as meaning that it could have a mixture of solid (i.e. solid186, solid187), shell (shell181, shell281), beam (beam188, beam189), mass (mass21), and surface effect (surf154) elements, among other possibilities. If this is true, then you might try filtering some of the visible elements by first selecting them by element type (ESEL,S,TYPE) or by name (ESEL,S,ENAME).

So if you know the element you want to select is a solid element, select those first:
ESEL,S,ENAME,,186
NSLE
EPLOT

Then try reselecting, ESEL,R,P from that filtered group of solid elements.

If you have surface effect elements in your model (surf151 – surf154, very likely if your model originated from Ansys Mechanical), try unselecting these first, since they overlay the surface of the underlying elements and could result in challenging graphical picking:
ESEL,U,ENAME,,154
NSLE
EPLOT

Then reselect, ESEL,R,P

I know your intention is to list the element’s attributes, but if you know anything about at least one of the attributes (element type, element name, element number, its associated material ID,section ID, etc) of the element you are trying to select, try selecting it by those attributes, or at least filtering the visible elements by selecting a group of elements by their attributes. Maybe you know that it is material ID 4:

ESEL,S,MAT,,4
NSLE
EPLOT
ESEL,R,P

This may be somewhat brute-force approach, but you can also try to list all the available element types:  From the Main Menu, Preprocessor, Element Type, Add/Edit/Delete. Once you know all the element types, you could start cycling through each of them:

ESEL,S,TYPE,,1
EPLOT
ESEL,S,TYPE,,2
EPLOT
ESEL,S,TYPE,,3
etc.
Then when you get to the visible area of the model that you are interested in using the previous TYPE selection, try to refine the above selection using ESEL,R,P from that filtered group of visible element TYPES.

I hope these suggestions help.

Matt

 

 

 

 

 

 

[spamanon]

Thank you, Matt. The click-and-hold tip is what I was looking for!