Polygon
A polygon consists of a sequence of connected line segments. To create a polygon, right-click a 2D Geometry node and select Polygon (). For a 3D model, in the Geometry toolbar, from the More Primitives () menu, select Polygon. You can also right-click the Geometry node to add this node from the context menu. It is also possible to create a polygon interactively by clicking the Draw Polygon button on the Sketch toolbar.
Enter the properties of the polygon using the following sections:
Object Type
From the Type list, select Solid, Closed curve, or Open curve to specify if the polygon is a solid object (only available in 2D) or a closed or open curve object. If you choose Solid or Closed curve, 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.
Coordinates
From the Data source list, you can choose from three different data sources for the coordinates:
Select Table (the default) to specify the coordinates of the vertices in a table directly in the Settings 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 File 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 Filename field, or click the Browse 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 Import to Table button to copy the file contents into the data point table and change the Data source to Table. 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 Rebuild with Current File button.
Select Vectors to specify the coordinates of the vertices as vectors (lists) in the fields x, y, and z (3D only); r and z in 2D axial symmetry; xw and yw in work planes. Each field can contain a list of numbers or expressions containing parameters, separated with commas or spaces. Click the Range button () to use the Range dialog box for specifying the vector of values for each coordinate.
Coordinate System
The coordinate system in which the polygon coordinates above are interpreted (in 3D geometries only). From the Work plane list, select xy-plane (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 xw, yw, and zw (which are then used to specify the position).
Selections of Resulting Entities
Select the Resulting objects selection 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 Show in physics (Show in instances if in a geometry part; Show in 3D in a plane geometry under a work plane in a 3D component) list: All levels, Domain selection (2D only), Boundary selection (2D only), Edge selection (3D only) or Point selection. The default is Domain selection in 2D and Edge selection in 3D. These selections do not appear as separate selection nodes in the model tree. Select Off to not make any selection available outside of the geometry sequence. From the Color list, choose a color for highlighting the resulting objects selection. See Selection Colors.
Cumulative Selection
If you want to make the resulting entities contribute to a cumulative selection, select a cumulative selection from the Contribute to list (the default, None, gives no contribution), or click the New button to create a new cumulative selection (see Cumulative Selections).