Drag and Drop Functionality

Once you have defined a study, you can use drag and drop to help you define subsequent studies quickly and efficiently. Drag and drop are similar to copy and paste. In the Simulation study tree, select the items you want to copy and drag them to the desired Simulation study tab.

Drag and Drop Rules

  • You can drag and drop (or copy and paste) materials, loads, fixtures, connections, mesh control, and results. You can drag and drop folders (including all items inside), a single item, or a group of items.
  • To avoid invalid input, you can drop items and folders to valid destinations only. While dragging an item, a group of items or folder, only the valid destinations in the Simulation study tree will highlight. For example, you can drag and drop material folders and items from any study to any other study, but you cannot drag and drop External Loads or Fixtures folders or items from a thermal study to a structural study (static, frequency, or buckling) or vice versa.
  • Although temperatures are valid for both thermal and structural, the program will not let you drag and drop temperatures from a thermal study to a structural study or vice versa.
  • You can only drag and drop result folders and items from one study to another study of the same type. For example, when you drag a Stress Plot icon from a static study and move it over the Simulation study tabs, only static studies will allow dropping. This table summarizes these rules.
    Item to Drag Drop to Notes
    Parts folder or items in the Parts folder Simulation study tab Valid for structural and thermal studies (copies materials)
    External Loads folder or items in the External Loads folder Simulation study tab Valid for relevant studies only (compatible analysis and mesh types)
    Fixtures folder or items in the Fixtures folder Simulation study tab Valid for relevant studies only (compatible analysis and mesh types)
    Connections folder or items in the Connections folder Simulation study tab Valid for relevant studies only (compatible analysis and mesh types)
    Results folder or items in the Results folder Simulation study tab Valid for the same type of study only
    Mesh folder Simulation study tab Validity depends on compatibility of contact options
    Mesh control items Simulation study tab  

Organization of Bodies

You can apply simulation features easily by organizing bodies into folders. Cut lists for beams and sheet metal bodies appear in the Simulation study tree.

To create sub-folders, right-click a folder in the Simulation study tree and select Create New Folder. You can then drag entities into the new folder.

All options under the parent folder are available for a newly created sub-folder, for example:

  • You can assign the same material properties to the bodies in a sub-folder under the Parts folder.
  • You can drag existing pressure loads to a sub-folder under the External Loads folder.