Element 3D

WARNING

GSA-Grasshopper plugin is pre-release and under active development, including further testing to be undertaken. It is provided "as-is" and you bear the risk of using it. Future versions may contain breaking changes. Any files, results, or other types of output information created using the plugin should not be relied upon without thorough and independent checking.

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Description

Elements in GSA are geometrical objects used for Analysis. Elements must be split at intersections with other elements to connect to each other or 'node out'.

In Grasshopper, an Element3D is a collection of 3D Elements (mesh solids representing Brick, Wedge, Pyramid or Tetra Elements) used for FE analysis. In GSA, a 3D Element is just a single closed mesh, but for Rhino performance reasons we have made Element3D an Ngon Mesh (opens new window) that can contain more than one closed mesh.

Refer to Elements to read more.

Properties

Icon	Type	Name	Description
	Integer List	Number	Element Number
	Mesh	Analysis Mesh	Analysis Mesh. This will export a list of solid meshes representing each 3D element. To get a combined mesh connect a GSA Element 3D to normal Mesh Parameter component to convert on the fly
	Property 3D List	3D Property	3D Property. Either a GSA 3D Property or an Integer representing a Property already defined in model
	Integer List	Group	Element Group
	Text List	Element Type	Element 3D Type. Type can not be set; it is either Tetra4, Pyramid5, Wedge6 or Brick8
	Text List	Name	Set Element Name
	Colour List	Colour	Element Colour
	Boolean List	Dummy Element	if Element is Dummy
	Integer List	Parent Members	Parent Member IDs in Model that Element was created from
	Integer List	Topology	the Element's original topology list referencing node IDs in Model that Element was created from

Note: the above properties can be retrieved using the Edit 3D Element component