3.2 The Menu Bar¶

The Menu Bar found at the top of the window gives access to the following menus:

File: Open files, save files, export or import files, etc.
Edit: Undo/Redo feature, options to edit the selection.
Physics: Define boundary conditions, contact interfaces, materials, etc.
FEBio: Run FEBio models
Record: create video recordings of the Graphics View
Tools: provides access to a set of useful tools, including the Settings dialog.
View: modify view settings and access additional windows.
Help: Access to the help options and About box.

A more detailed explanation of the available menu items follows.

The File Menu¶

The File menu offers the following menu items:

New Model: Start a new FEBio Studio model. This will open the Model Template dialog where you can select a template and set the model's name.
New Project: Create a new FEBio Studio project.
Open Model File: Open a FEBio Studio model from file.
Open Recent: Open a recently opened model file.
Open Project: Opens a project file (but not the models in the project).
Open Recent Project: Provides a list of recently opened projects.
Import Geometry: Import a surface or volume mesh into the current model.
Import recent Geometry: Shows a list of recently accessed mesh files.
Close all: Close all the currently opened models.
Save: Save the current FEBio Studio model to file.
Save as: Save the current FEBio Studio model under a different name.
Save all: Saves all the currently opened models.
Save Project as: Save the current project to file.
Export FE Model: Export the current model to a FE file format.
Export Geometry: Export the mesh of the selected geometry to a surface or volume mesh file format.
Import Project Archive: Opens a project from a project archive.
Export Project Archive: Saves the current open project to an project archive.
Import Image: Import image data into the current model.
Batch convert: Convert a list of files from one format to another. (For example, converting between an older to a newer FEBio file format.)
Batch Run: Allows users to set up a batch run, which will run a list of FEBio models.
Exit: Exits the application.

The Edit Menu¶

The Edit menu offers the following menu items:

Undo: undo the last operation
Redo: redo the last undone operation
Change log: opens a dialog showing all the changes that are made to the model.
Invert selection: Invert the current selection
Clear selection: Clear the current selection
Delete selection: Delete the current selection
Name selection: name the current selection
Hide selection: hide the current selection
Hide unselected: hides the unselected items.
Unhide all: Shows all the hidden objects.
Toggle Visibility: Hides visible objects and parts and shows hidden ones.
More selection options: Access to some additional options for working with selections.
Find: Locate nodes, elements, etc., based on their IDs.
Transform: Modifies the current selections position, rotation, and scale.
Collapse Transform: Applies the selected object's transformation to its mesh and resets its transform.
Clone object: create a copy of the currently selected object.
Merge objects: Merges all the selected objects into a single editable mesh.
Copy Object: create a copy of an object that can be pasted into a different model.
Paste Object: pastes the copied object into the current model
Purge: removes all physics from the model (materials, BC's, loads, etc.)

The Physics Menu¶

The Physics menu offers the following menu items:

Assign current selection: Assigns the current selection to the item that is selected in the model tree.
Add Nodal BC: Apply a boundary condition to a selection of nodes.
Add Surface BC: Apply a special boundary condition to a surface.
Add linear constraint: Apply a linear constraint boundary condition.
Add Nodal Load: Apply a load on selected nodes.
Add Surface Load: Apply a boundary load to a surface.
Add Body Load: Apply a body load.
Add Initial condition: Define an initial condition for the selection.
Add Contact: Set up different contact conditions between the objects in the model.
Add Surface Constraint: Add a nonlinear constraint to a surface.
Add Body Constraint: Add a nonlinear constraint to a part.
Add a general constraint: Add a nonlinear constraint.
Add Rigid Constraint: Define a constraint to a rigid body.
Add Rigid Initial Condition: Add an initial condition to a rigid body.
Add Rigid Load: Add a load to a rigid body.
Add Rigid Connector: Define a rigid connector between two rigid bodies.
Add Material: create a new material and manage material libraries.
Add Analysis Step: define a new analysis step.
Solute Table: Define all solutes for this analysis.
Solid-bound Molecule Table: Define all the solid-bound molecules of this analysis.
Chemical Reaction Editor: Define all the chemical reactions of this analysis.
Membrane Reaction Editor: Define special membrane reactions for the current model.
Edit Physics Modules: Change the settings of the active model. This allows users to activate or deactivate the different FEBio physics modules.

Run FEBio: Run the active model in FEBio.
Stop FEBio: Stop the current FEBio run.
Run FEBio Monitor: Runs the FEBio model using the FEBio Monitor.
Create Optimization Study: Opens wizard that walks users through generating an FEBio optimization input file.
Generate Tangent Diagnostic: Generates a tangent diagnostics file, which can be used to debug material implementations.
FEBio Info: Brings up a dialog box that lists all the available features pulled from FEBio.
Plugins Repository: Access the plugin repository that allows users to download and install FEBio plugins in FEBio Studio.
Create FEBio Plugins: Start a wizard that will help users generate an FEBio plugin template.

The Record menu gives the user access to the screen recording capabilities of FEBio Studio.

New...: selects a new target file for the recording.
Start: starts recording the GV and stores the frames to a file.
Pause: pauses the current recording.
Stop: stops the current recording and closes the target file.

The Tools Menu¶

The Tools menu offers the following menu items:

Curve Editor: Show the Curve Editor tool
Mesh Inspector: Activate the Mesh Inspector tool.
Mesh Diagnostics: Opens the mesh diagnostics tool, which allows users to run a diagnostic on the mesh of the currently selected object.
Unit Converter: Convert quantities between different units.
Elasticity Converter: convert between parameter for defining elastic materials.
Material Test: A tool that can be used to run simple scenarios (e.g. uni-axial testing) on one of the materials in the model.
Distribution Visualizer: This tool can be used to visualize the continuous fiber distribution options.
Kinemat: The Kinemat tool can be used to apply kinematics data to a model. To use it, first select the model file, which currently has to be in the .k (LSDYNA keyword) format. Then, select the kinematics file. This text file should define for each time step a line with a comma separated list of 4x4 transformation matrices, one for each material in the model. The matrices have to be entered in row-major order. (The last row is currently ignored and can be zero.) Finally, enter the range and stride of the rows of the kine file that will be read in. When Apply is pressed the Kinemat tool will apply the transformation matrices to all the nodes of the models, generating a state for each row of the kine file.
Plot Mix: This tool can be used to combine several plot files into one. A file list can be defined via the “Add file” button. When Load is pressed, the tool will grab the last state from each plot file and use it to define a time step.
Python Editor: Opens an editor that can be used to write and execute Python scripts.
Settings: Open a dialog box that allows you to edit FEBio Studio's settings.

The View Menu¶

The View menu offers the following menu items:

Undo view change: undo the last view change
Redo view change: redo the last undone view change
Show GV Context menu: Toggles the quick-menu box displayed on the graphics view.
Zoom to Selection: Zooms in on the current selection.
Orthographic Projection: Toggles between orthographic or perspective projection mode.
Show Normals: Toggles surface normal on or off of the active object.
Show capture frame: toggles the capture frame, which is the part of the screen that will be captured during recording on screenshots.
Toggle Overlay: hides all GV items that are rendered on the overlay texture.
Show Grid: toggle the grid in the GV on or off.
Show mesh lines: toggle the mesh lines in the GV on or off.
Show Edge lines: toggle the rendering of the crease edges on or off.
Color smoothing: toggles between smooth and discrete contouring. (only used on Post side.)
Toggle Render Mode: toggles between solid and wireframe render mode.
Show fibers: Brings up the fiber visualization dialog box, which allows visualization of material fibers onto the mesh.
Toggle Material axes: toggles the option to render the material's local axes.
Show discrete sets: Toggles whether discrete element sets (e.g. springs) will be shown or not.
Toggle Tag Info: Toggles between the different tag info levels (none, item label, item and connected nodes)
3D cursor to selection: Place the 3D cursor on the center of the current selection.
Track selection: when active, keeps the camera focused on the current selection. (only used on Post side.)
Toggle Lighting: Turns lighting (i.e. shading) on or off.
Toggle select connected: toggles selection mode between selecting a single item or all items connected to the selected item.
Toggle FPS: toggles rendering stats.
Standard Views: Select one of the standard views from the submenu.
Save viewpoint: Save the current camera view (only used by Post side)
Previous viewpoint: Returns camera to the previous view point. (only used by Post side)
Next viewpoint: Returns camera to the next view point (only used by Post side)
Sync all views: Applies the camera view from the current model to all the open models.
Windows: Toggles visibility of the FEBio Studio panels.

The Help Menu¶

The Help menu offers the following menu items.

Check for updates: see if any updates are available.
Show Welcome Page: Makes the Welcome page active.
FEBio Website: Opens the FEBio website (febio.org) in an external web browser.
FEBio Knowledgebase: Opens the FEBio Knowledgebase website in an external browser. The FEBio Knowledgebase contains user manuals, tutorials, and more information for working with FEBio and FEBio Studio.
FEBio User Manual: Open the online FEBio User Manual in an external browser.
FEBio Theory Manual: Open the online FEBio Theory Manual in an external browser.
FEBio Studio Manual: Open the online FEBio Studio Manual in an external browser.
FEBio Forums: Opens the FEBio forum website in an external web browser.
FEBio Publications: Opens a web page with a list of publications that have used FEBio.
Submit a bug report: Allows users to generate and submit bug reports that will be posted to the FEBioStudio GitHub issues page.
About FEBio Studio: Displays the FEBio Studio About Box.