Menu: Data->Materials Data→Materials
For any problem that needs a definition of materials, there is a database of existing materials that can be assigned to entities. You can also create new materials derived from existing ones and assign them as well.
Example of a materials window
| Update values | To modify a material must change its field values and then press the update button |
| New material | A new material is created taking an existing one as a base material. Base material means that the new material will have the same fields as the base one. |
| Delete material | The material is deleted |
| Rename material | To change the name of the material |
Caution: Once a mesh has been generated, any changes made to the assigned materials require you to regenerate the mesh or reassign these materials to the mesh directly. If only the material definition is changed (i.e. some field value) then is not necessary to re-mesh again.
Data Menu>Materials>Assign material
This option is used for assigning a material to some selected entities.
When working in geometry mode, the kind of entity to which you wish to assign a material must be selected, i.e. point, line, surface or volume; when working in mesh mode, you select directly the elements to which the material is to be assigned.
Note: A material cannot be applied over nodes; a material only assigned to points will be transferred to 1-node elements if generated, but not to nodes themselves.
If assigning from the command line, the UnAssignMat option erases all the assignments of a particular material.
Caution: Once a mesh has been generated, any changes made to the assigned materials require you to regenerate the mesh or reassign these materials directly to the mesh.
Data Menu>Materials>Draw material
This option draws a color indicating the selected material for all the entities that have it assigned. It is possible to draw just one material type or, alternatively, to draw all materials. To select just some of them use a:b and all material numbers that lie between a and b will be drawn.
Data Menu>Materials>Unassign material
When using the UnAssign window, you are presented with several possibilities:
- Unassign one material from some selected entities.
- Unassign one material from all the entities that may have this assigned.
- Unassign all materials from all the entities that may have them assigned.
When using the command line, UnAssign works as the third option here, i.e. all materials. For only one material, use UnAssignMat (see Assign material).
Data Menu>Materials>Exchange material
It is possible to import and export materials between the model database and an external one. Typically, one centralized database of materials is maintained and every new model gets its properties from there.
Note: If you wish to exchange materials with the problem type database, it is necessary to check that you have permission to read/write in that directory.