Guidelines for Material Orientation
Be aware of the points discussed here when assigning material orientation.
• The two types of material orientation are:
◦ Surface (2D) — Use for shells
◦ Part (3D) — Use for parts, volumes, and solids
• Material orientation is associated with an entity, not with a material.
• The material directions 1, 2, and 3 defined by the material orientation correspond to the directions listed on the Material Definition dialog box when you enter orthotropic or transversely isotropic material properties.
• If you assign a transversely isotropic or an orthotropic material to your model, you must specify the material's orientation or be aware of the default behavior.
• If you delete an orientation, you set the entity back to its default.
• You cannot assign material orientation properties to curves, beams, or 2D shells.
• In the FEM mode, you cannot define material orientations that reference cylindrical or spherical coordinate systems.
• In the native mode, if you define a material orientation with a cylindrical or spherical coordinate system as a reference, the origin of that coordinate system must not lie on the entity to which you assign the material orientation.
• Material orientation is defined in 3D for both 2D and 3D model types.
• If you assign a material orientation to a part and that part gets compressed to a surface, the definition of the material orientation changes from one defined over a part to one defined over a surface. The material orientation applies to all the surfaces that Creo Simulate creates when it compresses the part.
• You can define any number of material orientations for a model without assigning them.