Select
the members or plates you wish to load, click the right mouse button
and then select "Loads" => "Thermal Loads"
from the popup menu that appears.
OR
Select "Thermal Loads - Graphical" from the Loads menu, select
the members or plates you wish to load, click the right mouse button
and then click Ok.
In
the load case form that appears, if you are inputting new loads then
you would probably leave the load cases list field blank and specify
the load cases in the datasheet that follows. If you are editing loads
then you may also wish to leave the load cases list field blank unless
there are a large number of load cases and you want to restrict the
datasheet to just some of them.
You should then choose between showing the loads applied to each selected
member or plate individually (ie. one line of data for each member
or plate) or applied as a group to all the selected members or plates
(ie. one line of data for all the members or plates). The advantage
of the "group" selection is that you only have to input
one line of data in the datasheet to have it applied to all the selected
members or plates. This can be particularly useful if you are applying
the same load to a number of members or plates. If you are inputting
a different load on each member or plate then you should choose the
"individual" selection. Choosing "individual"
can also be useful if you are simply trying to see what loads are
already applied to the members or plates you have selected.
If you have elected to show the loads applied to each member or plate
individually then you can also choose between showing all the selected
members or plates, or just the ones that are loaded. If you are inputting
new loads then you would probably choose to show all the selected
members or plates, whereas if you are editing existing loads or just
viewing loads then showing just the loaded members or plates may be
preferable.
A
datasheet then appears with any existing loads shown. You can add,
edit or delete loads and then click the Ok button to save any changes.
The operation of the datasheet is the same as the non-graphical datasheets
(see also Datasheets).
For members, a positive Y thermal gradient causes the top (positive
y-axis) face of the member to expand and the bottom face to contract,
whereas a positive Z thermal gradient causes the front (positive z-axis)
side of the member to expand and the opposite side to contract.
For plates, a positive thermal gradient causes the top (positive z-axis)
face of the plate to expand and the bottom face to contract.
Refer to "Using
datasheets" for information on how to operate the above datasheet.