Using Custom Simulation Trees

If you have a large simulation with many objects in the tree, add custom trees for quick access to the objects that you use most. You can also set a custom tree to be the initial tree view that appears when you reopen the simulation file.

For complex simulations that have numerous regions, reports, scenes, monitors, injectors, and field functions, browsing in the simulation tree can be time-consuming. To change settings requires a lot of scrolling and clicking.

To reduce the complexity of the tree, use custom simulation trees that contain only the nodes that you choose. Examples of uses are:

With only the physics of relevance to a given problem, complete the physics continua specification on the reduced tree.
With only the meshing nodes, create a custom mesh with minimum mouse moves.
View only those nodes that have been modified from default property values.
For a Design Manager project with multiple design studies, specifying the settings of a design study.

A custom tree can consist of the objects that are associated with a filter or a tag. For details about filters, see Defining Logical Groups of Objects. For details about tags, see Tagging Simulation Objects.

To use custom trees, set them up and manage them with the following techniques:

Action

Instructions

Create an empty custom tree.

In an open simulation, create the custom tree object in one of the following ways:
- In the explorer window, drag any object from the simulation tree and drop it on the (Create a Custom Tree) button.
- Click (Create a Custom Tree).
- Click the drop-down arrow on the Create a Custom Tree button and select New Custom Tree.
A new Custom Tree tab appears next to the explorer window, and a new Custom Tree node appears in the Tools > Custom Trees node.
To label the contents of your custom tree, rename the Custom Tree node with a label such as Physics or Post.
To populate the custom tree, drag the nodes from the Simulation tab and drop them in the window of the tree.

Create a custom tree from a filter.

To create a custom tree from a filter, do either of the following:

Click the drop-down arrow on the Create a Custom Tree button and select one or more filters from the New From Filters submenu.
In the Automation > Filters node, right-click one or more filter nodes and select New Custom Tree.

If you create a custom tree from multiple filters, the resulting custom tree contains objects that are included in any of those filters. For example, suppose the geometry part Block is included in Filter 1 and the geometry part Cylinder is included in Filter 2. Creating a custom tree from Filter 1 and Filter 2 results in a custom tree that contains Block and Cylinder.

Note	These techniques are available only if your simulation contains at least one filter.

Note	If you modify a filter after creating a custom tree from it, the custom tree does not update itself automatically. For an updated custom tree, create another one from the modified filter.

Create a custom tree from a tag.

To create a custom tree from a tag, do either of the following:

Click the drop-down arrow on the Create a Custom Tree button and select one or more items from the New From Tags submenu.
In the Automation > Tags node, right-click one or more tag nodes and select New Custom Tree.

If you create a custom tree from multiple tags, the resulting custom tree contains objects that are tagged with any of those tags. For example, suppose the geometry part Block is tagged with Tag 1 and the geometry part Cylinder is tagged with Tag 2. Creating a custom tree from Tag 1 and Tag 2 results in a custom tree that contains Block and Cylinder.

Note	These techniques are available only if your simulation contains at least one tag.

Open an existing custom tree window.

To open an existing custom tree window, do either of the following:

Click the drop-down arrow on the Create a Custom Tree button and select an item from the Open submenu.
Double-click the node of that custom tree in the Tools > Custom Trees node.
As you hover with the mouse over the nodes, the node hierarchy appears in the path field at the lower left of the window.

Control whether the selection in the custom tree follows selections in other views.

By default, when you select an object in another view such as the main simulation tree, the corresponding node is selected in the custom tree. To deactivate this link, do either of the following:

Click (Link Selections with Other Views) at the bottom of the custom tree window.
Select the corresponding node of the custom tree (in Tools > Custom Trees) and deactivate the Linked Selection property.

Set a custom tree to be the initial tree view when a simulation is opened.

To set a custom tree view to be the initial tree view, do any of the following:

Select the Tools > Custom Trees node and choose a custom tree from the list in the Initial Tree View property.
Right-click the custom tree node and select Initial Tree View.
Select the custom tree node and activate its Initial Tree View property.

Control the view of the objects in the custom tree.

To control the view of the objects in the custom tree, use the button at the bottom of the custom tree window:

To show the position of the nodes in the main simulation tree, click (Show Full Tree Hierarchy).
With this setting activated, other nodes that you add to the custom tree appear with the full hierarchy of parent nodes, just like in the main simulation tree. However, nodes in the hierarchy that have been explicitly added to the custom tree have labels appearing in bold text, while the other labels appear in normal text.

In hierarchy mode, the added nodes appear in the same order as in the main simulation tree.
To restore the view so that only the placed nodes are visible, click (Show Full Tree Hierarchy) again.
Note This action also closes the placed nodes, so that any sub-node hierarchies that you were displaying are no longer visible.

Find a node in the main simulation tree.

To locate a node in the main simulation tree, right-click it in the custom tree and choose Select in Simulation.

Remove a node from the custom tree.

To remove a node from the custom tree, right-click it and select Remove from this Tree.

Custom tree objects can also be copied, renamed, or deleted using either of the following techniques:

Right-click the custom tree node in the simulation tree.
Right-click the background of the custom tree.