Structure review

2. Data panel

A right panel can be opened by clicking on the top button. It presents the selected data :

3. Select tool

Click on the Select button to open the Selection tool :

Click here for more information about the selection tool.

4. Measure tool

MetaStructure lets you measure the distance between 2 nodes :

Select the Measure tool
Select the first node
Select the second node with CTRL pressed
The distances appear on the left panel

You can continue to select other nodes (with CTRL pressed), only the 2 last ones will be taken in account.

Property	Description	Unit Metric	Unit USA
DX	Distance on global X	m	ft
DY	Distance on global Y	m	ft
DZ	Distance on global Z	m	ft
Distance	Distance between the 2 nodes	m	ft

5. Node coordinates

Click on the Node coordinates button :

The Data panel shows the global coordinates X, Y, Z for each node.

Property	Description	Unit Metric	Unit USA
Node name	Text or number	-	-
X	X global coordinate	m	ft
Y	Y global coordinate	m	ft
Z	Z global coordinate	m	ft

INTERACTIVITY :

Select a node on the model (1) will highlight the corresponding row on the data list (2) :

Select a row on the data list (1) will highlight the corresponding node on the model (2) :

Hold down the left mouse button to make a rectangular selection :

Release the mouse button, the data are highlighted :

6. Elements

Click on the Elements button :

Property	Unit Metric	Unit USA
Element type	-	-
Node1 name	-	-
Node2 name	-	-
DX	m	ft
DY	m	ft
DZ	m	ft
Length	m	ft
Section	-	-

The INTERACTIVITY is the same as explained on §5.

7. Sections

Click on the Sections button :

The beam elements are colorized in the color of their corresponding section.

Property	Description	Unit Metric	Unit USA
Section color	-	-	-
Name	Section’s name	-	-
Description	Section’s description	-	-
h	Height	mm	in
b	Basis	mm	in
tw	Web thickness	mm	in
tf	Flange thickness	mm	in
Ix	Bending inertia X	cm^4	in^4
Iy	Bending inertia Y	cm^4	in^4
It	Torsional inertia	cm^4	in^4
A	Area	cm²	in²
Ax	Shear area X	cm²	in²
Ay	Shear area Y	cm²	in²

Other properties can be found on the Data screen. Click here for more information.

8. Materials

Click on the Materials button :

The elements are colorized in the color of their corresponding material.

Property	Unit Metric	Unit USA
Material color	-	-
Name	-	-
Ref temperature	°C	°F
Max temperature	°C	°F
Thermal expansion option	-	-
Density	kg/m³	lb/ft³
Poisson	-	-
Description	-	-

9. Restraints

Click on the Restraints button :

The Data panel shows the Restraint type and the Level for each restraint.

The INTERACTIVITY is the same as explained on §5.

Click here for more informations about Level during Spectra definition.

10. Lumped masses

Click on the Lumped masses button :

Property	Unit Metric	Unit USA
Node name	-	-
Mass	ton	kips
Description	-	-

Click here for more information about creation of lumped mass on node.

The INTERACTIVITY is the same as explained on §5.

11. Local coordinates

It is useful to define a new coordinate system especially if we need to orient an Anchor plate on a node.

Click on the Local coordinates button :

Property	Unit Metric	Unit USA
Node name	-	-
Xx	-	-
Xy	-	-
Xz	-	-
Zx	-	-
Zy	-	-
Zz	-	-

Click here for more information about creation a new coordinate system on node.

The INTERACTIVITY is the same as explained on §5.

12. Node links

This tool creates a Link between one piping node and multiple structure nodes.

This link is necessary for load definition (External load) and during analysis.

Click on the Node links button :

Property	Description
Color	-
Node 1	First structure node of the link
Node 2	Second structure node of the link
Node 3	Third structure node of the link
Node 4	Fourth structure node of the link
Static friction	Static friction factor
Dynamic friction	Dynamic friction factor
Study	Name of the linked piping study
Piping node	Name of the linked piping node