Entity State Browser

Use the Entity State Browser to set various states for entities in a model.

From the menu bar, click View > Entity State Browser.

From this browser you can set an entity's state to active or inactive.


Figure 1.

The active/inactive state is a controllable state whereby the display of inactive entities will be turned off from the display in the graphics, the browsers, the display panel, and any panel entity collectors. It is designed to aid users who frequently work with large models and need be able to filter the list and display, to reduce the number of available or visible entities. Inactive are still present within the model but are removed from access until they are made active again.

The export/do not export state determines whether entities are exported when using the custom export option in the Export tab.
Note: This state does not have any effect on the all and displayed export options.

Furthermore, the active/inactive and export/do not export states are independent of each other – one does not affect the other. Entities that are set inactive are still eligible for all and custom export. They are not output when using the displayed export option since they are, by definition, not eligible for display.

All entities in the current model that have active and export states are shown in the browser at all times. The check-boxes in the Active and Export columns indicate the current settings for those entities and can be clicked to change the state. Each entity is individually controlled via the browser, but all collected entities contained within a collector are subsequently set to the same state as the parent collector – control is not available at the individual collected entity level.

Changing the state of an assembly has two functions. First, it sets the state of that assembly directly. Second, it sets the state of all sub-assemblies, components and multibodies referenced by that assembly to the same state as the parent assembly.

Include files do not directly contain any states that can be controlled by the Entity State Browser. Operating on an include will, instead, operate on all supported entities that are referenced by that include.

Context Menu

The Entity State Browser's right-click context menu contains additional browser options:
Option Available for: Description
Set Active Permanently Sets the currently selected entities in the browser to the active state.
Set Active Only Permanently Sets the entities currently selected in each folder to the active state and sets the remaining entities in those folders to the inactive state.
Set Inactive Permanently Sets the currently selected entities in the browser to the inactive state.
Set Inactive Only Permanently Sets the entities currently selected in each folder to the inactive state and sets the remaining entities in those folders to the active state.
Set Export Permanently Sets the currently selected entities in the browser to the export state.
Set Export Only Permanently Sets the entities currently selected in each folder to the export state and sets the remaining entities in those folders to the do not export state.
Set Do Not Export Permanently Sets the currently selected entities in the browser to the do not export state.
Set Do Not Export Only Permanently Sets the entities currently selected in each folder to the do not export state and sets the remaining entities in those folders to the export state.
Review Assemblies, Beamsection collectors, Beamsection, Blocks, Bodies, Boxes, Components, Configuration, Constrained extra nodes, Constrained rigid bodies, Constraints, Contact surfaces, Control volumes, Cross sections, Design variables, Design variable links, Design Objective Reference, Design Variable Property Relationship, Elements, Groups, Joints, Laminates, Load collectors, Loads, Loadsteps, Materials, Mechanisms, Objectives, Optimization constraints, Optimization responses, Output blocks, Part, Part Assembly, Part Set, Plies, Properties, Regions, Seatbelts, Sensors, Sets, System collectors, Systems, Vector collectors, Vectors Invokes Review mode, which displays selected entities irrespective of their display state, masked, active state (Entity State Browser), but not outside of the spherical clipping (if enabled).
Collapse All All Closes all of the folders in the tree structure, so that only the top-most level of items displays.
Expand All All Opens all of the folders in the entire tree structure, exposing every item nested at every level.
Show Find All Turns the browser Find on/off functionality – see Find section for more information.
Show Filter All Turns the browser Filter functionality on/off – see Filter section for more information.
Columns All Hides or displays the various columns in the tree control.
Configure Browser All Opens the Browser Configuration dialog, from which you can select which entities to display in the tree as well as which columns the browser displays.