Body

Defines a component of the attached geometry included under the Geometry object, or under a Part object if considered a multibody part (shown in the figure below).

Additional Related Information

Object Properties

The Details Pane for this object includes the following properties.

Category Properties/Options/Descriptions

Graphics Properties

The following properties change the graphical display of a body.

Visible: Toggles the display of the part on (Yes) or off (No) in the Geometry window.

Glow

Shininess

Transparency: Varies the body between being completely transparent (0) to completely opaque (1).

Color: Set the color of the body.

Specularity

Definition

Suppressed

Dimension (Surface Bodies Only): Specify the selected surface body as either three-dimensional or two-dimensional. Options include 3D (default) and 2D. For multi-body parts, you can specify each body independently as either 3D or 2D. When you set this property to 2D, the application automatically displays the 2D Behavior property. Supported settings for the 2D Behavior property include Axisymmetric, Plane Stress, Plane Strain, and General Axisymmetric.

Note: The application automatically clears and regenerates the mesh when you change the setting of this property. This default behavior can be turned off using the Options dialog. Set the Clear Mesh on Dimension Change property, under the Geometry category, to No.

Stiffness Behavior

Stiffness Option (Surface Bodies Only): Specifies the element stiffness for 3D flexible shell bodies. It is only applicable to analysis types where the Physics Type property of the environment object is set to Structural. In addition, for the property to be visible, the Stiffness Behavior property must be set to Flexible, and the Dimension property must be set to 3D. Property options include Membrane and Bending (default), Membrane Only, and Stress Evaluation Only.

Note: See the Help sections for the elements SHELL181 and SHELL281 (for KEYOPT(1)) in the Element Reference for additional information.

Note the following additional requirements:

For the Stress Evaluation Only setting, the application ignores the values of the Thickness and Offset Type properties.
For the Membrane Only setting, the application ignores the value of the Offset Type property.

Brick Integration Scheme: Appears only if Element Control is set to Manual in the Details pane of the Geometry object; not available if Stiffness Behavior is set to Rigid.

Coordinate System: Assign a local coordinate system to specify the alignment of the elements of the body if previously defined using one or more Coordinate System objects; not available if Stiffness Behavior is set to Rigid.

Reference Temperature

Reference Temperature Value: Available only when you select By Body as the Reference Temperature.

Reference Frame: Only appears when an Explicit Dynamics system is part of the solution.

Thickness: Appears only for a Surface Body.

Thickness Mode: Appears only for a Surface Body and is a read-only indication.

Cross Section: Appears for line bodies only. Provides a drop-down menu of selectable cross section options/objects.

Offset Mode: Appears only for a Line Body.

Offset Type: Appears for Line Bodies and for Surface Bodies when 1) the Dimension property is set to 3D and 2) the Model Type property is set to Shell.

Model Type: Displays for line bodies and surface bodies when the Dimension property is set to 3D.

Line Body options include Beam, Thermal Fluid, Pipe, Link/Truss, Cable, and Reinforcement.
Surface Body options include Shell and Reinforcement.

See the Reinforcement Specification Using Mesh-Independent Method section for information about using the For Reinforcement setting.

2D Behavior: Available when:

The 2D Behavior property of the Geometry object is set to By Body. For this Geometry object setting, you first must specify your analysis as two-dimensional on the Workbench project page (Analysis Type property for the Geometry cell set to 2D.
Or...
The Dimension property is set to 2D (during three-dimensional analyses).

Treatment: Generally used to scope a surface body to an Arbitrary Crack (via the Crack Surface property) or a line body to a Spot Weld, this property includes the options None (default) and Construction Body. When you set the Treatment property to Construction Body, the associated Body is not recognized during the mesh or solution process.

Important:

When you scope a surface body to define the Crack Surface property of an Arbitrary Crack object, this property is automatically set to Construction Body. Only surface bodies are supported for Arbitrary Crack specification.
When you specify a Body as a Construction Body, it is excluded from the All Bodies scoping for results. In addition, you cannot scope the Body to certain other features, such as loads and results.
You can use a Body defined as a Construction Body to specify:
- The nodes, elements, or element faces on other bodies that are located within the boundary of the Construction Body as a Named Selection using Worksheet Criteria. For this Named Selection, the Criterion column must be set to Within Body.
- A Coordinate System

Material

Assignment: Specify a desired material for the body. This property can be designated as a parameter.

Nonlinear Effects: Not available if Stiffness Behavior is set to Rigid.

Thermal Strain Effects

Gasket Initial Gap: Only displays when a valid Gasket Material is assigned and enables you to specify an initial gap for a gasket. The default value is 0. Valid entries must be greater than or equal to 0.

Fluid/Solid: Available only in the Meshing application (that is, not available if you are using the meshing capabilities from within the Mechanical application). Allows you to control the physics that occur on a model. Valid options are Fluid, Solid, and Defined By Geometry. When set to Defined By Geometry, the value is based on the Fluid/Solid material property that was assigned to the body in the DesignModeler application.

Bounding Box

Length X

Length Y

Length Z

Properties: Indications of the properties originally assigned to the body.

Volume

Mass

Length: Appears only for line bodies.

Note:

If the material density is temperature dependent, the Mass will be computed at the body temperature, or at 22°C (default temperature for an environment).
For a Surface Body, the Volume, Mass, and Moment of Inertia information for the Body selection are based on the Thickness value specified above. This does not account for any Thickness object specifications. Thickness object specifications overwrite the body thickness values when the application calculates thickness for any faces and/or surface bodies. Refer to the PRECISE MASS SUMMARY section from the Solution Information worksheet for solver calculated Mass values.

The following appear for all bodies except line bodies:

Centroid X

Centroid Y

Centroid Z

Moment of Inertia Ip1

Moment of Inertia Ip2

Moment of Inertia Ip3

Surface Area (approx.) - Appears only for a surface body

Note: Surface bodies are dependent upon the 2D Behavior setting of the Geometry object. Any setting other than the Plane Stress setting causes the above properties, except Surface Area, to display with the content "N/A" (Not Applicable) in their field. However, when the 2D Behavior property is set to By Body, you can change the setting of the 2D Behavior property for each surface body individually. These individual settings affect what is displayed by a property’s field.

Based on the setting of the Model Type property, the following may appear for line bodies:

Cross Section Area

Cross Section IYY

Cross Section IZZ

Pipe Internal Diameter

Pipe External Diameter

Pipe Thickness

The following appear for surface bodies only:

Offset Type

Membrane Offset: Appears for surface bodies when Offset Type = User Defined

Statistics

The properties of this category provide a read-only indication of the entities that comprise the body.

Nodes

Elements

Mesh Metric

Tree Dependencies

Valid Parent Tree Object: Geometry or Part (if under a multibody part).
Valid Child Tree Objects: Commands, Comment, Figure, Gasket Mesh Control, and Image.

Insertion Methods

Appears by default when a geometry is attached.

Right-click Options

In addition to common right-click options, relevant right-click options for this object include:

Insert >
Update
Generate Mesh
Preview >
- Surface Mesh
- Inflation
Export > Geometry
Show/Hide Body
Show/Hide All Other Bodies
Hide or Show > Solid Bodies/Surface Bodies/Line Bodies (option availability based on body type)
Suppress Body
Suppress All Other Bodies
Unsuppress All Bodies
Invert Suppressed Body Set
Search Faces with Multiple Thicknesses
Update Selected Parts > Update: Use Geometry Parameter Values
Create Material Assignment
Create Material Plot
Transform Part
Delete Part(s)
Create Named Selection
Clear Generated Data

API Reference

See the Body section of the ACT API Reference Guide for specific scripting information.

Additional Related Information

See the Attach Geometry/Mesh section for the methods to open a geometry in Mechanical.

Note: When a Surface Body is meshed with the SHELL181 element, KEYOPT(3) = 2 (full-integration scheme) is written to the input file. This differs from the usual default setting for SHELL181, KEYOPT(3) = 0 (reduced integration). Note that this element is a lower order element and is only used when the Mesh object property Element Order is specified as Linear, either by you as the user or by the application. See the Mechanical APDL Element Reference for SHELL181 for more information.