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Assign material

This branch attaches a material to a part of the model. The material itself is defined in a manager; the tree only records which parts of the geometry it applies to.

The branch has two entries, matching the two kinds of material.

Continuum

Assigned to surfaces and volumes.

Material is chosen from the list of materials defined in the material manager. The list cannot be typed into — a material must exist before it can be assigned.

Truss/Beam

Assigned to lines.

Truss/Beam Material is chosen from the list defined in the truss/beam material manager.

Editing a material from the tree

Both entries carry an Edit materials command that opens the corresponding manager directly. Anything defined there is available for assignment as soon as the manager is closed, so there is no need to leave the tree and come back.

What to watch for

The material must agree with the element type given to the same region:

  • A two-phase or three-phase formulation needs a material with the matching number of phases.
  • A line set to Truss needs a truss section, and one set to Beam needs a beam section.

Neither is checked here, so a mismatch shows up only when the calculation runs.

Renaming a material in a manager does not update assignments that already reference the old name. Re-assign the affected entities afterwards.