Polylines in Graphic Views

In GSA a polyline is a sequence of points in 3D space, which may optionally be specified in 2D, and which may optionally be related to a grid plane. There is a Polylines module in which polylines can be saved. There is also a current polyline which is displayed in Graphic Views when in the Polyline cursor mode.

The current polyline is drawn with respect to its grid plane axes or, if the grid plane is undefined, the current grid axes. Polylines are represented in Graphic Views by lines connecting the points and a feint line closing the polyline. Whether a polyline is considered as closed depends on the context in which it is used. For example, a polyline used in the definition of a grid area load is assumed to be closed whereas one used for a grid line load is not.

The current polyline may be edited from any Graphic View when in the Polyline cursor mode. The current polyline is displayed on the image when in the Polyline cursor mode and greyed when the cursor mode is changed.

Since the current polyline is “owned” by the model and not the particular Graphic View and since the cursor mode is set for all Graphic Views and not just the current one, the display of the current polyline occurs on all open Graphic Views simultaneously.