Polygon

A polygon consists of a sequence of connected line segments. To create a polygon, right-click a 2D node and select (

). For a 3D model, in the toolbar, from the (

) menu, select . You can also right-click the node to add this node from the context menu. It is also possible to create a polygon interactively by clicking the button on the toolbar.

Enter the properties of the polygon using the following sections:

From the list, select , , or to specify if the polygon is a solid object (only available in 2D) or a closed or open curve object. If you choose or , the program adds a line segment if needed to close the polygon.

	When using The Geometry Toolbar, the Solid button () is available to toggle between drawing a solid object or an outline (or curve) instead of selecting an Object Type. See Geometry Drawing Toolbar Buttons for other drawing toolbar buttons.

From the , you can choose from three different data sources for the coordinates:

•

Select (the default) to specify the coordinates of the vertices in a table directly in the window or load them from a file. Use the buttons underneath the table to move and remove rows, clear the table, and load and save table data.

•

Select to read vertex coordinate data from a text file where each row represents the x, y, and (in 3D) z coordinates for a vertex in the polygon. Specify the filename in the field, or click the button. The file must be a text file with the number of columns equal to the dimension of the geometry sequence and one row for each data point. The columns can be separated by space, tab, comma, or semicolon characters. The entries in the file should be numerical. In general, nonnumerical tokens and header lines are ignored. Click the button to copy the file contents into the data point table and change the to . Changes in the file do not automatically cause the polygon to be rebuilt. To rebuild the node after a change in the file, click the button.

•

Select to specify the coordinates of the vertices as vectors (lists) in the fields , , and (3D only); and in 2D axial symmetry; and in work planes. Each field can contain a list of numbers or expressions containing parameters, separated with commas or spaces. Click the button (

) to use the dialog box for specifying the vector of values for each coordinate.

The coordinate system in which the polygon coordinates above are interpreted (in 3D geometries only). From the list, select (the default, for a standard global Cartesian coordinate system) or select any work plane defined above this node in the geometry sequence. If you choose a work plane, the work plane and its coordinate system appear in the Graphics window, using an extra coordinate triad with the directions , , and (which are then used to specify the position).

Select the check box to create predefined selections (for all levels — objects, domains, boundaries, edges, and points — that are applicable) in subsequent nodes in the geometry sequence. To also make all or one of the types of resulting entities (domains, boundaries, and points) that the polygon consists of available as selections in all applicable selection lists (in physics and materials settings, for example), choose an option from the ( if in a geometry part; in a plane geometry under a work plane in a 3D component) list: , (2D only), (2D only), (3D only) or . The default is in 2D and in 3D. These selections do not appear as separate selection nodes in the model tree. Select to not make any selection available outside of the geometry sequence. From the list, choose a color for highlighting the resulting objects selection. See Selection Colors.