Much of the power of the Model Tree comes from the popup menu that appears when you click mouse button 3 on an item. For example, Figure 3–23 shows the effect of clicking mouse button 3 on the Materials container.
The Create menu item appears in bold font in Figure 3–23 because it is the default action. Double-clicking an item or selecting an item and pressing [Enter] invokes the default action. In most cases, if an item is a container, the default action is to create a new item in the container. Similarly, if an item is not a container, the default action is to edit the item. For example, if you click mouse button 3 on the Materials container and select Create, ABAQUS/CAE displays the Edit Material dialog box and allows you to create a new material.
Some of the commands in the popup menu appear with all items in the Model Tree; other commands appear only with specific items. For example, the Switch Context command appears with all items in the Model Tree, including containers.
Switch Context
If you select Switch Context, ABAQUS/CAE makes the item current. Where appropriate, ABAQUS/CAE also switches to the module in which you can edit the item. For example, if you click mouse button 3 on the Materials container and select Switch Context, ABAQUS/CAE switches to the Property module. For more information, see “What is a module?,” Section 2.3. Selecting a container and pressing [Cntrl]+[Enter] have the same effect.
Set As Root
If you select Set As Root, ABAQUS/CAE moves the container to the pull-down menu above the Model Tree and displays everything under the selected container in the Model Tree. For more information, see “Changing the view of the model,” Section 3.5.3.
Expand All Under
If you select Expand All Under, ABAQUS/CAE expands all of the containers and items inside the selected container.
Collapse All Under
If you select Collapse All Under, ABAQUS/CAE collapses all of the containers and items inside the selected container.
The popup menu commands that appear with only specific items mirror the actions that you can perform with that item's manager; for example, create, edit, delete, rename, suppress, and resume. Some menu commands are more specific; for example, right-clicking on a step allows you to toggle the Nlgeom setting and right-clicking on a job allows you to submit the job for analysis. When you become familiar with the Model Tree, you will find that you can quickly perform most of the actions that are found in the main menu bar, the module toolboxes, and the various managers.
