Member axes for linear members are defined in a similar manner to the axes of beam elements by two nodes locating the ends of the member. The x axis of the element is along the axis of the element (taking account of any offsets) from the first topology item to the second. For curved members the basic axis system of linear members holds.
There are a number of options for adjusting the display of data in tables. These are available from the Window > Settings menu and from the Data options toolbar.
The Axes page of the Labels and Display Methods dialog box is where various types of axes may be switched on for display in the current Graphic View. All axis sets are displayed as colour coded axes triads.
This feature enables new user-defined axes systems to be specified e.g. to specify an inclined roller support, to assist in interpretation of results, or to specify the construction grid. Axes systems may be Cartesian, cylindrical or spherical.
Axes
The Create user axes dialog box is used to create a user axis set which may either overwrite an existing axis set or become a new one.
New axes can be created or existing axes overwritten using the Sculpt > create user axes menu command. Two methods are available, as follows:
The coordinates of all nodes are stored in global axes; this is reflected in the nodal properties pane. However, they are displayed and edited in the axes of the current grid plane in the nodal table. The default current grid is the global grid plane (which refers to global axes and has the elevation set to zero).
A grid plane defines the geometry of a surface, and the load behaviour of the grid plane is defined by a grid surface.
A grid surface is required to in order to apply grid loads to the structure. The grid surface details how the grid load is transferred on to the structure.
All of the settings that specify the content of an Output view can be set either in the Output settings dialog box or in the dialog boxes accessible from this. The Output settings dialog box can be accessed by going to Output > Output Settings (Ctrl+W) or via the Wizard command on the Data Options toolbar.
When working with 2D elements it is often desirable to inspect results transformed into user defined directions in the plane of the element. Standard or user defined axis sets may be specified as output axes for this purpose.
Axis sets are used widely in GSA. Some of the uses are