3.1.8: Index to Beam

Sometimes the initial geometry is already given as a set of points and two lists of node-indexes with one entry for each start- and end-point of beams respectively. In such a case it would be cumbersome to convert this information into geometric entities only for feeding it into the “LineToBeam”-component which reverses the previous step. The “IndexToBeam”-component (see fig. 3.1.8.1) accepts a pair of lists of node-indexes and produces beams with default properties from it. This speeds up model generation considerably for there is no need to compare nodes for coincident coordinates.

Fig. 3.1.8.1: The “IndexToBeam”-component lets you directly define the connectivity information of beams

The “IndToBeam”-component makes it possible to define elements with zero length. This proves useful in case you want to connect elements that touch each other but should not be rigidly connected (think of a scissor – see section 3.3.3 about springs).

The input-plugs “Z-Ori”, “Color”, “Id” and “CroSec” have the same meaning as for the “LineToBeam”-component (see section 3.1.6).