Add Surface
If the Surface Type = Non-Circular in the Surface Options dialog, the Add Surface option in the Surfaces menu allows you to define specific NON-CIRCULAR (piece-wise linear) slip surfaces. To add a specific non-circular slip surface:
- Make sure the Surface Type = Non-Circular in the Surface Options dialog.
- Select Add Surface
from the toolbar or the Surfaces menu. - Enter the vertices defining the slip surface, graphically with the mouse, or by entering coordinates in the prompt line.
- When all vertices are entered, right-click and select Done, or press Enter with nothing in the prompt line, and the slip surface will be added to the model.
- If the starting and ending points of the slip surface are not entered exactly on the External Boundary, then they will automatically "snap" to the nearest point on the External Boundary.
- In order to have a kinematically admissible slip surface, all points must be either increasing or decreasing monotonically in the X direction (i.e. the slip surface cannot "reverse" direction at any point, or include vertical segments)
Tips
- Any number of specific non-circular surfaces may be defined for a model.
- Specific non-circular surfaces and a search (e.g. Block Search or Path Search) can be defined for the same analysis. i.e. you may analyze specific surfaces, and perform a critical surface search at the same time on the same model, this does not cause any problems.
- Specific non-circular surfaces created using Add Surface can be deleted using the Delete Surfaces option in the toolbar. The Delete option is also available in the Edit sub-menu of the Surfaces menu.