Elements and Nodes (Structural Items)

Elements and nodes (Structural Items)

Nodes are a special case.

The display of nodes in D3PLOT is treated differently to that of elements: by default they are not drawn, but they are still "there" on a plot for the purposes of labelling and screen-picking.

This situation arises because it is convenient to be able to screen-pick and label nodes, but not useful to draw their symbols: that would just slow down graphics and clutter up the screen. Therefore the treatment of nodes is as follows:

• Nodes on visible elements are always "there", even if not drawn explicitly, and may be screen-picked and labelled (by either method) at will.
  
  
• Turning the Attached nodes switch here on will cause those nodes "attached" to visible elements only to be displayed using "star" symbols.
  
  
• Turning the All nodes switch here on will cause all nodes, whether attached to an element (visible or otherwise) or not, to be displayed

Each class of element may be selected for display and/or labelling individually. Here the display of beams has been turned off.

The ALL ELEMS row selects them all.

Associated data: Local direction TRIADS are drawn for element types with coordinate systems.