This section contains basic information on using the different components in the Patran to complete tasks.

This information is intended to get you started using Patran. More detailed information can be found in the Patran Reference Manual.

A viewport is a graphics window in which the entire model (or a selected portion of a model) appears. A blank viewport, similar to the one shown below, appears at the center of the Patran window when you create a new Patran database.

The top of the viewport lists the name of your database (in this case test.db), the name of the viewport (default_viewport), the name of the current group (default_group), and the mode of operation for displaying the model (Entity). The Global Axes show the orientation of your model. A plus sign (+) marker indicates the global origin.

To move and resize viewports within the Patran window:

or

With Patran, there is no limit to the number of viewports you can create. Multiple viewports enable you to see different views of the model, different parts of the model, and different analysis results.

To create multiple viewports:

The Menu Bar is located directly under the Patran title bar. Each menu keyword has a drop-down menu with additional commands. The menu keywords are shown below.

When you invoke Patran, only the File menu is enabled; the other menus become enabled once you open a database. The File menu provides access to the various files used by Patran, including database file management, file importing and exporting, session file handling, hardcopy file creation, the status database, and session exiting.

The Group menu contains various options for you to organize into groups the geometric entities (points, curves, surfaces, solids) and finite element entities (nodes, elements, multipoint constraints) of a Patran model. You can then perform numerous modeling and postprocessing tasks on these groups.
For example, you could group finite elements composed of different materials. Or, for viewing results, you could create separate groups for displaying temperature and stress distribution on the same model simultaneously.

Viewports are movable, sizable graphics windows used to display all or part of a model. Each viewport provides one independent view of a stationary model, and maintains a set of parameters to determine how you want to view it.

Use the Viewport menu to create, edit, remove, and arrange your different viewports.

To move, resize, or create new viewports, see Working with Viewports.

The Viewing menu contains various options to control the size and orientation of a model within a viewport. You can manipulate a model’s rotational orientation, size, position, type of projection, scale factors, and clipping planes. You can also control your viewport’s viewing plane, observer position, window center, and focal point.

Changing your view in no way alters the model. With the Viewing menu options, you can pan, zoom in and out of, rotate, and resize your model.

For quick changes in viewing orientation, select from the set of viewing icons on the toolbar. For additional information on the toolbar, see Viewing Functions.

Also note that as you construct your model, Patran automatically resizes the viewport each time you add an entity outside the current field of view. The viewport is adjusted to encompass all entities in your current group.

Databases can get large and full of geometric and finite element entities. The Display menu helps you organize and enhance the appearance of these entities. With the Display menu, you can determine which entities you want displayed and how you want them displayed. And you can control numerous visualization features, such as render style, entity plotting and erasing, highlighting, and label display.

The Display features do not affect the basic operations of Patran. They merely enhance the usability and appearance of your models.

With the Preferences menu, you can choose what parameters you want to govern the construction and appearance of your model.

The Preferences menu defines global parameters that you can override in specific applications. For example, during an equivalence operation, you can override the global model tolerance (the default equivalencing tolerance). Patran, however, will not use the new tolerance value in subsequent operations outside the given application.

The only way to change a preference permanently is to set it within a Preferences form.

The Tools menu executes the optional applications licensed at your site without exiting Patran. It also provides a path to some of Patran’s newer, add-on features that you purchased at an additional cost. If an application module is not licensed, the option for it on the Tools menu will be dimmed, indicating that it is unselectable.

You can create numerous types of lists using the List option, including the following:

Use the Help menu to retrieve detailed online documentation for all of Patran’s features and tools. Through the Help menu you can also access tips on keyboard shortcuts, mouse functions, and screen picking.

There are a number of application buttons in the Patran window that relate to specific tasks in Patran. For a standard FEA analysis, the radio buttons are arranged so that you can progress from left to right in the course of your MSC.Patarn session. However, you can access most buttons at any time, once you have created a database.

Brief descriptions follow for all the Patran application buttons.

Selecting an application button displays an application form. Application forms are the primary method to define your model and control the analysis. Many application forms have subordinate forms, such as the Materials form and its subordinate Input Options form shown below.

You can choose only one application radio button at a time. Once you pick a second application from the window, the second application form appears and the first form closes. While you can only have one application form open at a time, you can have other forms open from the menubar. The tabs located at the bottom of the forms allow you to toggle between the forms that you have open. You can close an application by clicking its radio button.

The toolbar is a set of often-used functions displayed as a row of icons. These functions are grouped into several sets and used for model view control, render styles, predefined view orientations, and other functions. It is customizable, so you can add your own functions and icons or remove them.

You can rearrange the icons on the toolbar. Simply click and drag a set of icons to another area on the toolbar or to another location in the Patran window.

The nine icons shown below are the system icons. At start up only two icons are active: the File New and File Open. Once a database is opened, the remaining icons become active.

 

Using the toolbar icons below, you can customize the middle mouse button to change to view of your model.

The Viewing menu located on the top menubar contains several options for controlling the view of your model in the viewport. A subset of these options are quickly accessible from two sets of viewing icons located on the toolbar.

The next set of viewing icons define the orientation of the model in the viewport. By clicking one of the icons below, you can quickly view your model from different angles. The default orientation is a front view.

The two sets of Display icons located on the toolbar provide quick changes to the way in which you display your model in the viewport.

Click on the Home icon to bring up MSC Software’s Web page using your default browser.

The Heartbeat icon indicates whether Patran is busy or waiting for input from you. A stationary MSC globe on Windows machines means ready and waiting. A spinning MSC globe with a blue boarder means busy, but can be interrupted. A spinning MSC globe with a red boarder means busy, cannot be interrupted. On UNIX it is a solid square with the same color meanings.

The Command Line and History List Area appear at the bottom of the Patran window. You can manually enter commands in the command line. The history list area is used to view the commands that Patran generates when a menu form is executed, and to view errors or informative messages. You can resize the History window in order to see more lines in the History List Area.

Many times when you are working with application forms, a menu of icons appears to the left of your form. From this Select menu you can choose objects directly off the screen rather than typing in data on the application form. By selecting one of the Picking Filters from the Select menu, you control what type of objects you pick off the screen and how you select the object.

Picking and selecting off the screen can be a complex task. This section covers basic information about several aspects of the Select menu.

There are over 25 different Select menus in Patran. The Select menu that appears on your screen depends on the application in which you are working. For example, if you are creating a new point in your geometry model, the Point Select menu appears. Alternatively, if you want to select a finite element from a mesh that you have already generated, you will see the Element Select menu on your screen.

Each Select menu displays a series of graphic icons. As you move the cursor over each icon, the filter name appears next to the icon. The first four icons are common to all Select menus and control overall picking and navigating functions. The remaining icons are specific to each Select menu and act as
picking filters

An example of the Point Select menu is shown below.

Some of the Picking Filter icons you select will display a second and perhaps a third level Select menu. Each lower level menu in the hierarchy automatically replaces the previous Select menu. Only one Picking Filter menu is active at a time. As you continue to make filtering selections you further define how you will pick the object off the screen.

To navigate through different levels of menus in the hierarchy, use the two icons near the top of each Select menu:

By default, the Select menu appears as a set of icons arranged vertically and docked in the application form area. Like Patran’s toolbar, you can undock and reposition the Select menu as a free floating menu at any time. You can also dock the Select menu on the left side of the window, in the toolbar area, or at the bottom of the window. Any changes that you make to the appearance or location of the Select menu remains in effect each time you open a database.

To change the appearance of the Select Menu:

or (on Windows)

There are two basic methods of picking entities off the screen: enclosing an entity by drawing a boundary around it, or pointing directly at the object, and selecting it.

You can use the enclose function to select any number of objects off the screen at one time. This is especially useful when you want to select a large number of objects that you would otherwise have to select one by one.

On the Select menu there are two types of boundaries that you can use to enclose objects: a rectangular boundary and a polygon boundary. The rectangular boundary is the default. The polygon boundary offers more flexibility in defining the shape of the boundary.

To use the Polygon boundary:

To use the rectangular boundary:

What happens when an object lies partially within and partially outside the boundary you drew?
This depends on your picking preferences. Using the Preferences/Picking menu from the menu bar,
you can specify that the object needs to be entirely enclosed, partially enclosed, or only the centroid
need be enclosed. This preference then instructs Patran whether to include or exclude an object lying on the boundary.

On each Select menu there are typically several icons that control how you pick individual objects off the screen. These features are most useful when you are selecting one or two objects, or when the desired objects are located such that you can’t enclose them using a boundary.

The filtering icons are specific to the application. The default picking icon is the Any icon. Using this function you can select any object off the screen that corresponds to the current application. This is essentially the unfiltered picking function.

To select an object:

or, to be more selective in your picking:

Using the Select menu you can add an entity to an application form, replace an existing entity on the form, or remove an already selected entity form a form. When the Select menu first appears, it is in Replace mode. Any entity that you select from the screen replaces an existing entity if one is designated in the databox.

To change this mode to add or remove entities:

This operation changes a setting in a file called settings.pcl, generally located in the installation directory. If this operaiton does not work it is usually because there are no permissions set to change this file. You may need to either change the permissions or copy the file to the directory from which you are running and do the operation again.

Picking objects from the viewport can be a difficult task. The features discussed in this section are the basic features of picking and selecting. For more information about individual picking icons, select menus, and picking off the screen, please refer to the Patran Reference Manual, Volume 1, Part I Introduction to Patran, Chapter 3: Interactive Screen Picking.