MBS Planes Panel

Use the MBS planes panel to create rectangular, planar surfaces for use in multi-body analyses. The created entity is an mbplane.

Location: Analysis page > Safety module

Create Subpanel

Use the Create subpanel to create a mbplane entity.
Option Action
name = Specify a name for the new joint.
color Select a color for the mbplane.
Vertices' coordinates: Define the dimensions of the plane using the N1, N2, N3 selectors. Click N1, then select a node or temp node in the modeling window. Repeat to select two other non-collinear nodes for N2 and N3.
multibody = Select an existing multibody.

Update Subpanel

Use the Update subpanel to update the vertices and color of an existing mbplane.
Option Action
mbplane Select the mbplane to modify.
color Select a color for the mbplane.
Vertices' coordinates: Define the dimensions of the plane using the N1, N2, N3 selectors. Click N1, then select a node or temp node in the modeling window. Repeat to select two other non-collinear nodes for N2 and N3.

Resize Subpanel

Use the Resize subpanel to adjust the width and length of an mbplane entity.
Option Action
mbplanes Select the mbplanes to resize.
corner 1, corner 2, corner 3 Move the corners. Selected corners will move in the specified direction for the specified magnitude.
direction: Define the direction.
N1-N2
The vector from each selected mbplanes' N1 coordinate node to its N2 coordinate node.
N1-N3
The vector from each selected mbplanes' N2 coordinate node to its N3 coordinate node.
X
Move along the X axis.
Y
Move along the Y axis.
Z
Move along the Z axis.
magnitude Specify the amount of distance to extend each selected corner.

Permute Subpanel

Use the Permute subpanel to swap plane vertices that affect either the orientation of the plane or the normal direction of the plane. Each time you click permute the plane advances through the cycle of possible permutations.
Option Action
mbplanes Select the mbplanes whose possible permutations to cycle through.

Command Buttons

Button Action
create Create the new mbplane entity.
reject Undo the mos recent creation, update, resize, or permutation. Changes become permanent (cannot be rejected) once you leave the MBS Planes panel.
update Update the selected mbplane according to the inputs on the update subpanel.
resize + Resize the selected mbplanes along the specified direction by the positive magnitude.
resize - Resize the selected mbplanes along the specified direction by the negative magnitude.
review normals Display the normal direction of each selected mbplane.
flip normals Reverse the normals of each selected mbplane.
permute Cycle through each possible permutation for the selected mbplanes, swapping plane vertices that affect either the orientation of the plane or the normal direction of the plane.
return Exit the panel.