EORIENT

EORIENT, Etype, Dir, TOLER
Reorients solid element normals.

PREP7: Meshing

PREP7: Elements

Etype

Specifies which elements to orient.

LYSL

—

Specifies that layered solid elements will be oriented. This value is the default. Layered element types affected by this option include SOLID185 with KEYOPT(3) = 1, SOLID186 with KEYOPT(3) = 1, SOLSH190, SOLID278 with KEYOPT(3) = 1 or 2, and SOLID279 with KEYOPT(3) = 1 or 2.

Dir

The axis and direction for orientation, or an element number. If Dir is set to a positive number (n), then all eligible elements are oriented as similarly as possible to element n.

NEGX	—	The element face with the outward normal most nearly parallel to the element coordinate system’s negative x-axis is designated (reoriented) as face 1.
POSX	—	The element face with the outward normal most nearly parallel to the element coordinate system’s positive x-axis is designated (reoriented) as face 1.
NEGY	—	The element face with the outward normal most nearly parallel to the element coordinate system’s negative y-axis is designated (reoriented) as face 1. .
POSY	—	The element face with the outward normal most nearly parallel to the element coordinate system’s positive y-axis is designated (reoriented) as face 1.
NEGZ	—	(Default) The element face with the outward normal most nearly parallel to the element coordinate system’s negative z-axis is designated (reoriented) as face 1.
POSZ	—	The element face with the outward normal most nearly parallel to the element coordinate system’s positive z-axis is designated (reoriented) as face 1.

TOLER

The maximum angle (in degrees) between the outward normal face and the target axis. Default is 90.0. Lower TOLER values will reduce the number of faces that are considered as the basis of element reorientation.

Notes

EORIENT renumbers the element faces, designating the face most parallel to the XY plane of the element coordinate system (set with ESYS) as face 1 (nodes I-J-K-L, parallel to the layers in layered elements). It calculates the outward normal of each face and changes the node designation of the elements so the face with a normal most nearly parallel with and in the same general direction as the target axis becomes face 1.

The target axis, defined by Dir, is either the negative or positive indicated axis or the outward normal of face 1 of that element.

All layered solid elements in the selected set are considered for reorientation. The elements affected are layered structural solids (SOLID185, SOLID186), solid shell elements (SOLSH190), and layered thermal elements (SOLID278, SOLID279).

After reorienting elements, you should always display and graphically review results using the /ESHAPE command. When plotting models with many or symmetric layers, it may be useful to temporarily reduce the number of layers to two, with one layer being much thicker than the other.

You cannot use EORIENT to change the normal direction of any element that has a body or surface load. We recommend that you apply all of your loads only after ensuring that the element normal directions are acceptable.

Prisms and tetrahedrals are also supported for non-layered solid elements. Prisms are supported for layered solid elements, including layered SOLID185, layered SOLID186, layered SOLID278, layered SOLID279, and SOLSH190. However, layers parallel to the four-node face of the prism are not supported.

Menu Paths

Main Menu>Preprocessor>Modeling>Move / Modify>Elements>Orient Normal