FBD Bar Plot

Display forces and moments acting on beam and bar elements.

From the Post ribbon, click the Bar Plot tool.
Figure 1.


Restriction: Only available in the Nastran and OptiStruct solvers .
The tool contains the following:
Bar Plot
Select if the bar plot will show on nodes or elements. Select forces and moments that will display.
Force/Moment Diagram
Select forces and moments that will display. Select the plot direction.
Create Envelope
Activate the checkbox to create an envelope using multiple loadcases.
If the algebraic type is selected, the tool considers positive and negative values to build up maximum and minimum envelopes.
If the absolute type is selected, the tool considers absolute values to build up maximum and minimum envelopes.
Values inside parenthesis refer to the loadcase and simulation in that sequence.
Show values
Activate the checkbox to display values.
Size Scaling
Defines how bar plot vectors will be scaled for visualization.
Arrow Length (%)
Scales bar plot vectors for visualization.
Color
Change the color of forces and moments.
Vector heads
Defines if the bar plot vector points to a point or out of it.
Vector styles
Change the style of bar plot vectors.
Numeric format
Defines the numeric format of the values shown.
Tables
Creates tables with forces and moments for one or multiple free-body sections and for one or multiple loadcases.
The summary table shows all forces and moments for multiple free-body sections.
Figure 2.


The min/max table shows minimum and maximum values for forces and moments.
Figure 3.


Display the Bar Plot for the Selected Loadcase


  • Click Apply to show the bar plot.
  • Click Clear to hide the bar plot.
Figure 4.