Graphical Windows
Various graphical windows are available: 3D views, 2D cross section, curve plotter, FLD among other things. They all have the following characteristics:
- Their size can be modified.
- They can be moved.
- They cannot be iconized.
Notes:
· The user opens only one window per project loaded for 2D cross section and FLD.
· The user opens only one window for the plotter during a session.
· The user can open as many 3D views as needed during a session.
3D Views
A 3D view automatically belongs to a project. Several 3D views (corresponding to only one or several different projects) can be opened at the same time although only one can be active at a time. A project window is activated by clicking anywhere on it.
A customizable contextual menu provides easy and quick manipulations for the most frequently used tasks. Most of the items of this contextual menu are accessible through the menu bar, but some of them can only be used with it.
3D View right-click menu
The different options of the contextual menu are listed and described below:
- Show:
· Show all: displays all objects in the active model, overriding any visibility setting.
· Free edges: highlights the free edges of surface meshes. This option is useful to check the connection between surface meshes. A connected surface mesh has one closed free edge only, that corresponds to the boundary surface.
· Multiples edges: highlights the multiple edges of the mesh. This option is useful to check the T-junction or multiple junctions.
· Surfaces free edges1: highlights the free edges of surfaces. This option is useful to check the connection between surfaces (a connected surface has only one closed free edge, that corresponds to the boundary surface).
· Normals: displays arrows representing the normal of each shell element.
· Duplicated surfaces: displays the duplicated surfaces, i.e. the surfaces that were detected at the joining session as double surfaces and that will not be considered at the meshing. By default, these surfaces are not displayed.
· Thin surfaces: displays the thin surfaces, i.e. the surfaces that were detected at the joining session as thin surfaces for the mesh as well and that will not be considered at the meshing. By default, these surfaces are not displayed.
· Remeshed surfaces: displays the remeshed surfaces, i.e. the surfaces that were meshed again with the Automatic remeshing option, because of the quality of the mesh after an initial meshing strategy.
· Control nodes: displays control nodes, used in the morphing module, in blue.
· Feature lines: displays feature lines, used in the morphing module, in green.
· Spotweld: display spotwelds in the post-processing module. Each spotweld is represented by a 2D element plus as many as extra spotwelds defined in the spotweld attribute.
Caution:
· These 2D elements may be very small.
· Locked nodes: when the attribute Boundary Condition on Points is used for an analysis, the nodes selected in the solver can be displayed in the post-processing module.
- Hide: hides or displays objects.
· Hide Selected: hides the objects that have been selected from the project 3D views.
· Hide Unselected: hides objects that have not been selected from the project 3D views.
- Add Selection to Object: adds the selected entities to an object. It opens the Objects dialog box.
- Remove Selection from Object: removes the selected entities from an object. It opens the Objects dialog box.
- PAM-DIEMAKER:
· Add Selection to Design Part1: adds the content of the selection to an object of "Part" type. This object is used by the program to identify the meshed entities used by PAM-DieMaker module as starting geometry.
· Remove Selection from Design Part1: removes the content of the selection from the object named "Part".
· Hide selected flanges: hides "Flange type" objects. The definition of this object may be necessary for the creation of the addendum. Note that this object is not accessible to the user and cannot be manipulated as a standard object.
· Show Flanges: shows "Flange type" objects.
· Symmetry active: when parts are duplicated using the symmetry feature, all interactions concerning the blankholder and profile functionality are symmetric. The symmetry properties can be switched off/on.
·
Smooth
control lines: the transition from one control
line to an adjacent one is tangential; nevertheless it is possible that a
sequence of control lines is not as smooth as the user expects. Therefore a
smooth functionality is implemented to optimize the curve characteristic.
Three different ways to generate these lines are implemented:
ê The user uses a fixed DOL and will use the control lines as a stabilizer for the die shoulder (or die wall). So if a DOL exists the control line will be generated as a kind of DOL offset (as shown below). This could lead to rather unattractive curve characteristics for the inner control lines.
Before smoothing
After smoothing
ê The second case is when the connecting lines were already generated. The part curve and the blankholder (DOL) curve are used as reference lines for the creation. The resulting control line is an interpolation with the effect that control lines near the part has more part characteristics and control lines near the blankholder have more DOL characteristics.
ê The generation of the control line is completely free whether no DOL nor connecting lines exist. Only the tangents perpendicular to each profile is used to generate a free spline curve.
· Align selected profiles: a selected set of profiles and/or modifiable DOL points can be aligned onto a straight line. This line is defined by the linear connection of the most left (upper) respectively most right (lower) selected profile.
Note that only the profile end points will be aligned. Using the connecting line approach for building the die opening line might generate light oscillations.
- Section: controls the cross-section display.
- Feature Line Tangency[1]: enables the user to handle the feature line tangency (Enforced or Released). This parameter determines the shape of the deformed mesh after the morphing operation.
2D Views
2D graphical windows are numerous in PAM-STAMP 2G and have very different utilization and characteristics. They are usually dedicated to specific functions such as:
- Creating the shape of the blankholder in the PAM-DIEMAKER module.
- Drawing curves called templates in the PAM-DIEMAKER module.
- Plotting curves of any kind (material law, history) in the Curve Plotter.
- Plotting cross-section.
- Displaying Forming Limit Diagram in post-processing.
- Editing the shape of drawbeads in the Drawbead Editor.
Since it is difficult to summarize in this paragraph all the capabilities of those windows, each type of 2D view will be described with the function they are working with.