Define Material Properties

To define your material (e.g. rock or soil) properties, select Define Materials from the toolbar or the Properties menu.

You can define up to 40 different material types in the Define Material Properties dialog. See the following topics for details.

Name The Material Name you enter in the Define Material Properties dialog will appear in the Assign dialog when you are assigning the material properties. Therefore use a meaningful name which you can associate with your rock type (e.g. "sandstone" instead of "rock1"). It will also appear in the tabs at the top of the Define Material Properties dialog.

Material Colour The Material Colour you choose in the Define Material Properties dialog will appear in the Assign dialog, beside the Material Name. The user can customize any material colour. To restore the original colour used by Phase2 for that material, select Material Colour and select Default.

Initial Element Loading

Unit Weight

Elastic Properties

Strength Properties

Staged Material Properties

Datum Dependent Properties

Unsaturated Shear Strength

Note: properties can also be imported from other Phase2 files, using the Import Properties option in the Import sub-menu of the File menu.

Right-Click Shortcut

A useful shortcut for editing the material properties of an existing Phase2 model is the following:

  1. Right-click the mouse in a material zone of the model.

  2. From the popup menu select Material Properties.

  3. This will display the Define Material Properties dialog, with the material type corresponding to the zone in which you clicked, already selected in the dialog.