Global: Entity Sets

Description

Entity sets define collections, enabling entities to be grouped together for different purposes including, for showing and hiding parts of a model, for filtering results, for selecting, and so on.

Entity sets may also used by other entities and features of Straus7, such as for the purpose of selecting the elements that contribute to a Reaction Multi-point Link (Insert Link Clusters: Reaction MPL) and for the selection of elements to be considered by a load path (Insert: Path), amongst other purposes.

Entity sets can be given meaningful names, and their position in the list can be changed by moving them to any desired location via drag-and-drop techniques.

All entity types can be contained in an entity set. Additionally, an entity can be contained in multiple sets, or in no set at all.

Entity Sets vs Groups

Entity sets are conceptually similar to Global: Groups as both represent a collection entities.  The main differences between entity sets and groups are:

Dialog

Entity set list

List of all entity sets in the model.

Shows the visibility status, name and count of each type of entity belonging to each set.

New entity set

Create a new empty entity set.

Delete selected entity sets

Deletes the selected entity sets. Multiple entity sets can be selected simultaneously for deletion in one operation.

Delete unused entity sets

Deletes all entity sets that do not contain any set members.

Edit entity set name

Edits the name of the selected entity set.

Add selected entities to selected sets

Selected entities are added to the selected sets. Multiple entity sets can be selected simultaneously to enable the addition of the same entities to multiple sets in one operation.

Remove selected entities from selected sets

Selected entities are removed from the selected sets. Multiple entity sets can be selected simultaneously to enable the removal of the same entities from multiple sets in one operation.

Clear all entities from selected sets

All entities are removed from the selected sets. Multiple entity sets can be selected simultaneously for clearing in one operation.

Selections

Selects all, clears all or inverts the visibility state of all entity sets.

Update / Autoupdate

If set, visibility changes of entity sets are reflected immediately in the model window.

If not set, visibility changes are not reflected until the entity set dialog is closed or Update is clicked.

Set Show / Hide options

Display options for the entity sets.

In Selection Functions: Select by Entity Set, The TEXT Tab, SUMMARY: Model Summary and The LISTINGS Tab similar principles apply to include/exclude entities from consideration and/or display.

Keep Selection

If set, entities remain selected after any add, remove or clear operation. Additional operations may then be applied to those entities without the need to reselect them.

If not set, selected entities will be unselected after an operation.

Set Dropdown Menu

This menu is accessible in the VISUAL/Global tab by clicking the arrow next to the Sets icon.

Add selected to last set

Adds the selected entities to the last set in the entity set list. If there are no sets, a new one will be created.

Remove selected from last set

Removes the selected entities from the last set in the entity set list. If there are no sets, no action is taken.

Add selected to new set

Adds the selected entities to a new set. This set then becomes the current 'last set'.

Toggle (show/hide) last set

The visibility state of the last set is toggled.

These functions allow for specific entities to be quickly hidden and then shown again. The procedure is often used to temporarily hide some entities in order to provide visual access to concealed parts of the model. Typically, the following steps are taken:

  1. Select some entities.
  2. Add selected to new set (Ctrl+Alt+H).
  3. Toggle (show/hide) last set (H).

The selected entities are now hidden, revealing the entities they were obscuring.

After performing the required operation on the obscured entities, the hidden entities can be shown again by:

See Also