SMS:Edit Menu

The Edit menu is one of the standard menus and is available in all of the modules. The commands in the Edit menu are used to select objects, delete objects, and set basic object and material attributes.

• File:Delete icon.bmp Delete

Used to delete the selected objects. This command is equivalent to hitting the DELETE or BACKSPACE keys on the keyboard. If no objects are selected when the Delete command is executed, then all of the objects of the tool selection type will be deleted. Unless the Confirm Deletions option is turned on, the user will not be asked to confirm the deletion of selected entities.

• Select All

Selects all items associated with the current selection tool.

• Select With Poly

Selects items associated with the current selection tool which are inside a user defined polygon. Create the polygon after selecting the command by clicking in the Graphics Window. The polygon is closed with a double-click. A similar feature called Select with Feature Polygon is available from the Map module. If a feature polygon is defined, the user can select nodes or elements in the mesh module or vertices in the data module that are inside or outside of the feature polygon.

• Select By

Brings up a submenu with the following options:

• Material Type

Selects all items of the current selection tool of a specified material. This command opens a dialog with a list of the defined materials and waits for the user to select a material type. This enables all nodes or elements that reference a specific material to be selected together.

• Dataset Value

Opens a dialog to get a range from the user. All entities (nodes, elements, scatter points, etc.) of the current selection tool type whose scalar dataset value lies inside that range are selected. This enables all entities above or below threshold to be selected together for quick editing.

File:SelectByArea.jpg

Select by Area dialog.

• Area

Opens a dialog to get a range from the user. All polygons whose area lies inside that range are selected. This enables all entities above or below threshold to be selected together for quick editing.

• Length

Opens a dialog to get a range from the user. All arcs whose length lies inside that range are selected. This enables all entities above or below threshold to be selected together for quick editing.

• Ambiguous Gradient

• Confirm Deletions

By default, whenever a set of selected objects is about to be deleted, the user is prompted to confirm the deletion. This helps ensure that objects are not deleted accidentally. Selecting the Confirm Deletions command toggles this request for confirmation. When the option is off, the check mark next to the Confirm Deletions line in the menu disappears.

• Current Coordinates

Allows the user to tell SMS what coordinate system the data is to reference. SMS supports several different global systems as well as a user defined local system.

• Coordinate Conversions

Converts the current data from on coordinate system to another. For more information, see the Coordinate Conversions article.

• Single Point Conversion

Opens a dialog which acts as a stand-alone coordinate converter. The user specifies a to and from coordinate system and a location. The location is converted to the new system within the dialog.

• Projection...

Brings up the Current Projection dialog. See Projections for more information.

• Reproject...

Reprojecting means to convert data from one coordinate system to another. See Reproject for more information.

• Single Point Projection...

Allows entering the XYZ coordinates for a point in one projection and seeing what the new coordinates would be if the point was reprojected to a different projection. See Projections for more information.

• Time Settings...

Opens the Time Settings dialog. For more information, see the Time Settings article.

• Materials Data

See the Materials Data article.

• Project Metadata

Allows the user to define metadata for the project. This documents a history of the project.

• Copy to Clipboard

Copies the contents of the graphics window to the windows clipboard. This allows graphics to be easily transferred to documents and presentations.

• Paste

Opens the Import Wizard with the contents of the windows clipboard. This requires that the contents be text values This allows graphics to be easily transferred to documents and presentations.

• Preferences

Allows the user to set program preferences. For more information, see the article Preferences.

Related Topics

SMS Menus