To create a solid, hollow (surface), or bounding cylinder, in the Geometry toolbar, click Cylinder (), as shown in Figure 7-31. The cylinder is a right circular cylinder — that is, a cylinder that has circles as bases aligned one directly above the other.

You can also right-click the Geometry node to add this node from the context menu. Then enter the properties of the cylinder using the following sections:

From the Type list, select Solid (default) or Surface to specify if the cylinder is a solid object or a (hollow) surface object.

From the Defined by list, select Size and position (default) to specify the radius and height for the cylinder as well as specify its position and rotation in space. Select Bounding cylinder (approximate) to create a cylinder that approximately bounds a selection of objects or entities. A bounding cylinder is useful to replace a complicated imported object with a cylinder, or to create a fluid domain around objects.

From the Axis list, select Principal, longest (default) to let the axis be determined by the longest of the principal axes of the input entities and go through the centroid of the input entities. The default rotation will be determined by the second principal axis. Select Principal, shortest to let the axis be determined by the shortest of the principal axes of the input entities, or select Manual to manually specify the axis, point on axis and coordinate system.

This section is shown if Defined by is set to Size and position. Define the size and shape of the cylinder in the Radius and Height fields.

This section is shown if Defined by is set to Size and position and determines the center of the bottom circle. For Position type set to Coordinates (default), enter the position using the x, y, and z fields. For Vertex, select a point in the Graphics window. Click the Activate Selection button to toggle between turning ON and OFF the Position selections.

This section is shown if Defined by is set to Bounding cylinder (approximate). From the Geometric entity level list, choose the level of the entities to bound: Object (default), Domain, or Boundary, Edge, or Point. From the Selection list, choose Manual (default) to select the geometry objects or entities that you want to bound in the Graphics window. If the geometry sequence includes user-defined selections above the Cylinder node, you can choose one of the selections from the Selection list. Click the Activate Selection button to toggle between turning ON and OFF the Input objects selections. Alternatively, choose All objects to select all objects or choose All nonconstruction objects to automatically select all objects that have not been marked as Construction Geometry.

For the setting Geometric entity level: Object select the checkbox Keep input objects (selected by default) to keep the objects that are bounded. Clear the checkbox to delete the selected objects.

This section is shown if Defined by is set to Bounding cylinder (approximate) and Axis set to Manual. Fill in the Radial, Bottom, and Top fields to enlarge the bounding cylinder on one or more sides (or shrink it if the values are negative).

Specify the direction of the cylinder’s axis. From the Axis type list, choose x-axis, y-axis, or z-axis (the default) to obtain an axis aligned with the specified coordinate axis. Choose Cartesian to enter a direction vector using the x, y, and z fields. Choose Spherical to enter the direction using the angles theta (polar, zenith) and phi (azimuth).

This section is shown if Defined by is set to Bounding cylinder (approximate) and Axis is set to Manual. Use the x, y, and z fields to specify a point on the axis. If you only want to specify a different axis and use the centroid as point on the axis, add a Centroid Measurement and enter the measurement parameters as point coordinates.

Specify the rotational angle about the axis in the Rotation field. When this angle is zero (the default), the second axis of the cylinder’s local coordinate system is parallel to the xy-plane.

The coordinate system in which the position, axis, and rotation angles above are interpreted. From the Take work plane from list, select This sequence (the default) to use a work plane earlier in the same geometry sequence, or choose a part instance earlier in the sequence to choose a work plane from that part. 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 cylinder’s position).

Layers can be used to create sandwich primitives by adding layers on one or more sides. This is especially useful when specifying artificial domains in the physics, such as Infinite Element Domains and Perfectly Matched Layers. You specify the thicknesses of layers in the Layers table, and optionally a name for each layer. The outermost layer comes first. Select the checkboxes to specify where to apply the layers. Each layer must have a minimal thickness (depending on the size of the geometry).

Select the Create Parameters checkbox to automatically create parameters for the center and size of the cylinder to be used in further geometry creation, mesh size settings, or physics set up. The created parameters can be seen in the variable tree that appears when pressing Ctrl+Space in an edit field in another feature.

Select the Resulting objects selection checkbox 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, edges, and points) that the cylinder 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) list: All levels, Domain selection, Boundary selection, Edge selection, or Point selection. The default is Domain selection, which is suitable for use with materials and physics defined in domains. For use with a boundary condition, for example, choose Boundary selection. 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.

When the Layers table is nonempty, select the Create layer selections checkbox to create predefined domain selections for each specified layer and for the core domain. To also make the domains available as selections in all applicable selection lists (in physics and materials settings, for example), select the Show in physics (Show in instances if in a geometry part) checkbox (ON by default).

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).

Select the Construction geometry checkbox to make the resulting objects available only in the feature’s geometry sequence. For more information, see Construction Geometry.