• References—Specify the geometric entities for your beam and select the relevant geometric entities in the model. If you select valid geometric references for the beam before opening the Beam Definition dialog box, your selections appear in the References collector when the dialog box opens.

• Material—For a part model, keep the default part material or specify the material Creo Simulate uses to create the beam. For an assembly model, specify a material.

• Type—In FEM mode only, specify the type of beam you want to create—either a beam or a truss. If you create a truss, you do not need to specify Y direction, orientation, or release.

• Orientation—Specify the orientation of the XY plane for the beam action coordinate system.

• Start and End tabs—Define the start and end properties for beams. In FEM mode, you can specify different section and orientation properties for the two ends of your beam. However, in native mode, the section and orientation must be uniform along the length of the beam and you specify them on the start tab. These tabs include the following items:

◦ Section—Define the cross-section properties for beams and save sections in a library.

◦ Orientation—Specify the orientation of the beam shape coordinate system with respect to the beam action coordinate system.

◦ Release—Specify the degrees of freedom to be released at each beam end.

▪ Releases at ends of composite curve segments—This check box is available only when you define beam releases for an edge or curve beam in structural mode only. Additionally the selected curve must be a composite curve.

• Extra tab—In FEM mode only, define, stress relief factors and specify whether to include stress recovery information.