Objective: To select elements to be excluded from force summation and analysis.
Finite element models are an approximation of a system. In many cases, they contain elements that have fictitiously high loads - whether due to poor geometry (i.e. triangular elements with stress concentrations), connection to ill-defined features or boundary conditions, etc. In these cases, we do not want to account for those fictitiously high loads in the Analysis or Sizing process - as they can cause entire Zones to grow to unreasonable sizes or have unreasonably low margins of safety.
Note
Users can manually select any element to be excluded from the Sizing/Analysis. In doing so, HyperX will ignore the element(s) loads in the loads processing, but the element(s) will still be accounted for in the Zone geometry (i.e. buckling span calculations).
All operations that relate to FEM elements and loads can be found on the Model tab of the Ribbon.
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Navigate to the Model tab of the Ribbon.
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Select "Exclude Elements".
Use the resulting dialogue to choose which element IDs are to be excluded from loads processing.
This can be done in one of two ways:
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Manually select elements in the Viewport.
Tip
Change the selection wheel to "Element" (rather than "Any") if it hasn't been set to that already. As of version 2025.1.4, the selection mode will automatically change.
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Paste a comma-separated list of elements directly into the dialogue. Use the "Sync" option to update the Viewport to show your pasted selection.
Click "Apply" to save the selection.
Size a selection of Zones. Make sure all Zones have a Design Property, Load Property, and an Analysis Property
The results of an Analysis or Sizing can always be reviewed using the Legend, Watch Window, and Analysis Watch Window. Any one of these tools can be used to review the margins of safety and the corresponding critical loads causing that margin. The critical loads should be lower than what you saw before excluding elements.
However, if you used Peak Element load processing, there is an additional mechanism for reviewing the load processing results - and therefore verifying the element exclusion:
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Print an Excel Stress Report - Make sure to include the Controlling Design Loads option.
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Review the resulting Critical Design Loads tab - All of the elements that were flagged for having loads that satisfy the HyperX Peak Element Metrics are shown in the Peak Element Metrics table.
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Review the Peak Element Metrics table - Notice that none of the elements in your element exclude list have been flagged as an element with Peak load. Thus confirming that the fictitiously high element loads were not accounted for in the load processing step of the Sizing/Analysis.