Group Command

GROUP,<ng>,<type>

activates or creates the element group number <ng>. The parameter <type> can be typed as a number or a string.

Group Type (number) Group Type (string) Number of Nodes Description
1 SOLID 8 3D solid element
2 BEAMS 3 3D beam elements
3 SHELL 3 or 4 3D plate/shell elements
4 PLANE 3 or 4 2D plane strain solid elements
5 TSHELL 3 or 4 3D Thick Shell elements
7 SPRING 2 3D spring elements (translation or rotation)
8 GENERAL 2 3D stiffness/mass generalized element
9 LOVEWAVE 3 or 4 1D plane Love wave elements

The excavated soil zones may be modeled using the following element types:

The information (excepting nodes) which may be assigned to elements of each type is shown in the following table:

Group Type Element Data Instruction
SOLID material / soil layer index MSET
element type ETYPE
BEAMS material index MSET
real property index RSET
I node release code KI
J node release code KJ
SHELL material index MSET
thickness THICK
element type ETYPE
TSHELL material index MSET
thickness THICK
element type ETYPE
Integration Order EINT
PLANE material / soil layer index MSET
element type ETYPE
SPRING spring property index RSET
LOVEWAVE material / soil layer index MSET
element type ETYPE
GENERAL matrix property index RSET

Note: All the elements in the system must be grouped separately according to their type. Gaps in element numbering are not allowed. Use the ECOMPR instruction to compress groups with element gaps. It is possible to use more than one group for an element type. For example, all structural brick elements may be considered as one group and all excavated soil elements as another group.