Create Expansion View

Creates a view of model elements that are unfolded from their curved shape into a flat form. This type of representation is only relevant for model elements with a relation to a sculptured surface where the relation can be described by a curve on the surface. It is always the curves that are unfolded. For example:

• Curves created by intersecting the surface (with a plane for instance).

• Stiffeners with a trace defined by a curve in the surface, the trace curve is unfolded.

• Panels limited by the surface, the boundary limits located within the surface are unfolded.

The expansion view is a specific way of representing the model and there are some limitations as to which functions are available. The view direction is always implicitly selected from the expansion view setup. The view direction is dependent on the expansion coordinate system. The default expansion coordinate system dictates the view direction. For example, -Z specifies a downward view direction. Therefore, view direction selection is disabled.

The functionality to create projection or section views is disabled because you cannot modify the view direction. These functions create a copy of the existing view with a different view direction, which is of no use for an expansion view.

Other functions that are disabled, or are of no use for expansion views are:

• Section planes: all functionality related to the creation and modification of section planes is disabled.

• Detail view

• Quick add

• Perspective view: the perspective angle is always zero and cannot be modified.

• Hatching (using a hatching representation rule set or local hatching rules): Inhibiting any setting of a hatching rule set has no effect.

The Create Expansion View window allows you to define the view visual style, view title, view scale, the expansion surface, the expansion coordinates and the elements that are added to the view.

View Style

Select from the drop down list to define the view visual style. The creation and modification of visual styles is an administrative task, refer to Visual Styles for further information.

View Title

Input the view title in the field. The view title is restricted to a limit of 1000 characters and can include symbols, numbers and spaces. The view title can be displayed on the drawing canvas as intelligent text and is displayed in the Active Properties window if the view is selected as the Current Owner.

Note:
The # character is a special character in AVEVA E3D Design, input ## to output a single # character in the view title.

View Scale

Select from the drop-down list to define the scale for the view. The default is Unset, this option automatically calculates the view scale to fit within the view frame.

If the view style has a predefined scale, this scale is used as the default value. The predefined view scale is displayed in the drop-down list.

All scale values use the metric system, if the view style predefined scale uses a different system, the scale value is converted to the metric system.

If a view scale is used, the view frame size is automatically calculated.

Definition

The Definition tab allows you to define the expansion surface, the expansion coordinate system and the element types that are added to the view.

Expansion Surface

To add elements located within a surface area to the view, input a value in the field to define the Surface (SRFSUR) element or click Select Surface to add a surface element using the Model Explorer or an existing view.

You are prompted to Select design element

Click to identify the surface element to be added to the view. The Select Surface field is updated to indicate the added surface element.

If a surface element is selected, it is added to the drawlist as a design element and so is every location that is not a grid element. If you select a surface element, the drawlist is populated so that elements are filtered by surface. The intent is that only model elements with a relation to the selected surface appear in the view. The filtering is implemented by adding two rules for every selected element type. The CRITERIA of the rules makes use of the TOPLOC pseudo attribute:

ALL FROM TOPLOC(TYPENAME SELECTED_TYPE) of /SURFACE

The criteria collects all elements in a hierarchy under SELECTED_TYPE that have their location defined by /SURFACE.

TOPLOC is currently implemented for ICRPNT, ICRCUR and SRFSUR (points, curves and surfaces). The resulting list of model elements can be of the following types when TYPENAME UPANEL or TYPENAME UPANEL_MEM is used:

• IPLATE

• INBNDRY/ILIM

• ISTIFF

• IHOLE

If a surface element is not selected, normal ADDE statements are used. For example:

ALL SELECTED_TYPE.

The primary purpose of using TOPLOC is for performance reasons. Using the criteria ALL UPANEL instead of ALL FROM TOPLOC(UPANEL) of /SURFACE could result in a very significant loss of performance.

If the Expansion Surface field is empty or the entered value is not valid, an error message is displayed.

Expansion Coordinate System

The expansion coordinate system enables DRAW to perform unfolding of model elements. The default values are suitable for unfolding the main ship hull surface where the expansion direction is normally in a for/aft direction (along the X-axis) and the expansion direction is in the portside/starboard direction (along the Y-axis). When unfolding surfaces other than the main ship hull, it is possible to input alternative values for Expansion Origin, Main Direction and Expansion Direction.

Elements

Select the required check boxes to define the element types that are added to the view.