Editing Step-Dependent Objects

When you edit an object in the step in which it was created, you change the definition of the object in all of the steps in which it is active. In some cases you can also edit an object in steps in which its status is Propagated or Modified. In these cases the object's definition varies according to the analysis step. When you select an object to edit in a particular step, that step becomes the current step. Only the objects relevant to the current step are displayed on the model.

The effects of editing a step-dependent object are summarized below.

If the status of the object is Created in the selected step:

  • Modifications that you make to the object in this step become effective in this step and propagate through all subsequent steps in which the condition is active unless you modify the object again in a later step.

  • The status of the object remains Created in the selected step and also remains unchanged in all subsequent steps.

If the status of the object is Propagated or Modified in the selected step:

  • Modifications that you make to the object in this step become effective in this step and propagate through all subsequent steps in which the object is active.

  • The status of the object becomes (or remains) Modified in this step and remains unchanged in all other steps. (In other words, if the status of the object in the following step was Propagated before modification, its status in the following step remains Propagated after modification.) For example, the load applied over a sequence of general static analysis steps in Figure 12–1 has been modified in Step 3; the modifications remain in effect in Step 4 even though the status in Steps 4 is Propagated.

In some cases you cannot edit a particular aspect of an object's definition because it must be consistent for the analysis to proceed correctly. For example, although you can modify the magnitude of a load in any analysis step, you cannot modify the region to which the load is applied. The areas in an editor that specify this kind of restricted data are unavailable in all steps except the one in which the object was created.

When you delete a step, all objects within that step (created, modified, and propagated) are deleted. You cannot delete modified or propagated objects individually; however, you can delete created objects. When you delete a created object (either individually or by deleting the step that contains the object), all modified and propagated instances of the object in other steps are also deleted.

You should take care when deleting or renaming objects, such as amplitudes, that may be referred to by other objects. For example, if you delete or rename an amplitude, the objects that refer to the amplitude become inconsistent. To resolve the missing reference, you can edit the object and refer to a new amplitude, or you can create a new amplitude with the same name as the deleted amplitude.