The element has two coordinate systems associated with it, the element system and the material system. The element system is defined by the geometry of the element and is fixed, for reference see the entry in the quick reference guide(qrg). The material system you can define and in Patran you do this through the "properties".
A couple of pictures to illustrate. Note that the material system x,y lie in the element plane so their direction is obtained by a projection of the material reference coordinate system into the element plane. ref qrg.
The pictures illustrate use of a CID and a vector to define the material direction.
The element has two coordinate systems associated with it, the element system and the material system. The element system is defined by the geometry of the element and is fixed, for reference see the entry in the quick reference guide(qrg). The material system you can define and in Patran you do this through the "properties".
A couple of pictures to illustrate. Note that the material system x,y lie in the element plane so their direction is obtained by a projection of the material reference coordinate system into the element plane. ref qrg.
The pictures illustrate use of a CID and a vector to define the material direction.
