Geometry, Mesh, and BC Entity Visibility

The visibility of geometry, mesh, BC and Genesis entities can be turned on or off, either individually or globally. After visibility is turned off, the associated entities will remain invisible until visibility is turned on again.

The command to control global visibility is:

{Mesh|Geometry|BC} { [Visibility] [on|off] }

This command sets the global visibility on or off for all mesh, geometry, or BC entities, respectively. Turning off BC visibility also affects Genesis entities such as blocks, sidesets, and nodesets. Global visibility settings take precedence over the visibility set on individual entities. By default, Mesh and Geometry visibility is on, and BC visibility is off.

Global visibility of geometry, mesh, and BC entities can also be controlled from these tool bar buttons in the GUI (from left to right):

The command to control the individual visibility of geometry entities is:

{ {Body|Curve|Surface|Volume|Vertex} <range> } [Mesh][Geometry] Visibility [On|Off]

If the Mesh keyword is included, only the visibility of the mesh belonging to the specified geometric entity is affected. Similarly, if the Geometry keyword is included, only the visibility of the geometry is affected. If neither keyword is included, the command is identical to including both keywords.

Invisibility of geometry is inherited; visibility is not. For example, if a volume is invisible, its surfaces are also invisible unless they also belong to some other visible volume. As another case, if the volume is visible, but a surface is set to invisible, the surface will not follow its parent's visibility setting, but will remain invisible.

If vertex visibility is turned on, the vertices of the geometry become visible. The default for vertex visibility is off. The default for all other geometry entities is on.

The commands to control visibility of edges and nodes are:

Edge [Visibility] [On|Off]

Node [Visibility] [On|Off]

These commands set the global visibility on or off for all edges or nodes, respectively. If edge visibility is off, mesh edges will not be drawn when mesh faces are drawn. Edge visibility is on by default; node visibility is off by default. Face visibility is always on when mesh visibility is on.

The command to control the individual visibility of genesis entities is:

{Block|Nodeset|Sideset} <range> visibility [{on|off}]

Genesis entities and boundary conditions are best viewed with geometry and mesh visibility off and BC visibility on.

Entity visibility for individual geometry and Genesis entities can also be controlled via context (right-click) menus in the Tree and in the graphics window.

Entities that are not visible can still be drawn temporarily using the "draw" command to display one or more specific entities.