Custom Grouping of Nodes
To achieve better overview and easier navigation of the model tree in the Model Builder window, you can create group nodes in the Model Builder by selecting and grouping other nodes. You can also create initially empty group nodes and then move other nodes into those group nodes. Group nodes can add organization to the model tree by grouping features that belong together, such as features that belong to a particular part of the geometry or are related to a particular aspect of the physics. You can drag the group nodes to reorder them or drag other nodes to or from the group nodes. Group nodes also make it easy to apply actions to all their members. Right-click a Group node to add additional subnodes of the support types or to choose (or use the corresponding keyboard shortcuts) Copy, Duplicate, Enable, Disable, and Delete to make those commands act on the group and all its members. Group nodes under Results also make it possible to, for example, evaluate all derived values in a group by right-clicking the Group node and choosing Evaluate All or to add plots in a group to the Add Predefined Plot window by. right-clicking the Group node and choosing Add as Predefined Plot.
The groups only change the view of the model but do not modify the model itself (with the exception that the order of features might be affected).
Creating Group Nodes
You can create group nodes using one of these methods:
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Select a set of nodes that are related and appear in the same part of the model tree. Right-click the selected nodes and choose Group from the context menu (or press Ctrl+G) to create a Group node. The selected nodes become children of the node group.
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Right-click a node (see below) that supports group nodes as subnodes and choose Node Group to create an empty Group node. You can then move applicable nodes to that node group.
There is only one setting in the Settings window for a Group node (). In the Label field, type a descriptive node label if desired, so that the label of the Group node describes its contents.
You can add node groups to the following parts of the model tree:
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Under Global Definitions: Parameters, Variables, Functions, Method Calls, Load and Constraint Groups, Geometry Parts, Mesh Parts, Materials, Extra Dimensions, and Reduced Models.
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Under each type’s group node under Global Definitions: Variables, Materials, and so on.
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Under Definitions under a component.
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Under each type’s group node under Definitions: Variables, Functions, and so on.
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Under Geometry in a component.
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Under Materials in a component.
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Under a physics interface.
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Under Results.
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Under each type’s group node under Results: Datasets, Tables, and so on.
When you right-click a Group node, you can choose to add any applicable nodes as subnodes from the context menu.
Under Global Definitions and Definitions, you can group nodes under another Group node so that you can organize those nodes under Group nodes at several levels.
Ungrouping and Deleting Group Nodes
To ungroup nodes under a group node, right-click the Group node and choose Ungroup, or press Ctrl+Shift+G. Ungrouping removes the group and moves the subnodes in the group to the group’s parent. If you instead right-click the Group node and choose Delete, or press Delete, the group node and all its subnodes are removed. If it is not possible to delete a subnode, it is then moved to the parent just like when you ungroup a group node.
Moving Nodes To and From Group Nodes
You can drag and drop an applicable node into a group, or right-click the node and choose an applicable group node from the context menu’s Move To submenu.
To move nodes out from a group node to the level above, you can drag and drop it or right-click it and choose Move Out (). You can also choose Move Out for a Group node that is placed under a type’s node, such as Variables.
Group Nodes and Group by Type and by Space Dimension
When activating Group by Type (see below), it will affect Group nodes in the following way:
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All applicable nodes that do not belong to a Group node will appear under a type node.
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The type nodes appear after the Group nodes in the model tree.
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 Group nodes that contain only a single type of nodes become a child of the type node keeping the order of the features of that type.
The behavior is similar for grouping of physics features by space dimension in the physics interfaces.
The Group nodes for materials under Global Definitions can include special settings for creating user-defined material libraries. See Grouping of Materials for User-Defined Materials.