Purpose
====

Assign geometric and material characteristics to structural elements. The affected geometric data is complementary to the mesh data.

Some of the characteristics treated include:

• for shell-type elements: the thickness, a reference direction in the tangential plane,

• for beam-type elements: the characteristics of the cross section and the orientation of the main axes of inertia around the neutral fiber, the curvature of the curved elements,

• for discrete elements (spring, mass/inertia, shock absorber): the values of the stiffness, mass or damping matrices to be affected directly or after orientation,

• for rod-type or cable-type elements: the area of the cross section,

• for 3D and 2D continuous media elements: local axes in relation to which the user can define anisotropy directions.

The order must be comprehensive for all structural elements of the model.

This operator produces a cara_elem structure.