All geometry in the Mechanical application is displayed in the global coordinate system by default. The global coordinate system is the fixed Cartesian (X, Y, Z) coordinate system originally defined for a part.
In addition, you can create unique local coordinate systems to use with springs, joints, various loads, supports, and result probes.
Cartesian coordinates apply to all local coordinate systems. In addition, you can apply cylindrical coordinates to parts, displacements, and forces applied to surface bodies.
Note: Cylindrical coordinate systems are not supported by the Explicit Dynamics solvers, but may be used for some postprocessing operations.
Annotations are available for coordinate systems. You can toggle the visibility of these annotations in the Annotation Preferences dialog box. For more information, see Specifying Annotation Preferences.
The following topics are covered in this section:
- 8.1. Creating Coordinate Systems
- 8.2. Importing Coordinate Systems
- 8.3. Applying Coordinate Systems as Reference Locations
- 8.4. Using Coordinate Systems to Specify Joint Locations
- 8.5. Creating Coordinate-Based Section Planes
- 8.6. Transferring Coordinate Systems to the Mechanical APDL Application
- 8.7. Setting Up Coordinate Systems in the Mechanical Configure Tool