Select Mesh
Edit from the main menu bar to orient the stack direction of elements in a continuum shell, cohesive, cylindrical, or gasket mesh. You can orient only hexahedral, wedge, and quadrilateral elements because these are the only elements that can be stacked to form a continuum shell, cohesive, cylindrical, or gasket mesh. If you have assigned cylindrical elements or second-order gasket elements to the region, you must first change the assignment to conventional elements before you reorient the stack direction. You can then convert the region back to a cylindrical or gasket mesh by reassigning cylindrical elements or second-order gasket elements. If you change the orientation of the stack direction of elements in a region, Abaqus/CAE does not change the orientation of prescribed conditions or named surfaces applied to that region.
To orient the stack direction:
Enter the Mesh module.
From the Object field in the context bar, select Part and select a part from the list. This tool is available only for working on orphan mesh elements. To change the stack direction of native elements, see “Applying a mesh stack orientation,” Section 17.18.8.
From the main menu bar, select MeshEdit.
Abaqus/CAE displays the Edit Mesh dialog box.
Tip:
You can also display the Edit Mesh dialog box using the 
tool, located at the bottom of the Mesh module toolbox.
In the dialog box, do the following:
In the Category field, select Element.
From the Method list, select Orient stack direction.
For hexahedral and wedge elements, Abaqus/CAE colors the bottom face of the mesh stack purple and the top face brown. Similarly, an arrow indicates the orientation of quadrilateral elements. In addition, Abaqus/CAE highlights in red any element faces and edges that have inconsistent orientation. For more information, see Chapter 25, “Continuum shells”; “Creating a model with cohesive elements using geometry and mesh tools,” Section 21.3; Chapter 32, “Gaskets”; and “Swept meshing of cylindrical solids,” Section 17.9.4.
In the viewport, select the elements to orient. You can [Shift] + Click on individual elements to add them to your selection or [Ctrl] + Click on selected elements to remove them from your selection.
Tip: You can use the Selection toolbar to change the picking behavior. For more information, see Chapter 6, “Selecting objects within the viewport.”
When you have finished selecting elements to orient, click mouse button 2.
If your part is meshed with hexahedral or wedge elements, pick a face from one of the selected elements. Abaqus/CAE uses the picked face to represent the top face of the reference orientation. If your part is meshed with quadrilateral elements, pick an edge from one of the selected elements. Abaqus/CAE orients the elements toward the picked edge.
Tip: If you make a mistake while orienting elements, click Undo in the Edit Mesh dialog box to undo the change. Abaqus/CAE restores the original orientation for those elements.
Repeat the previous steps as often as necessary to orient additional elements.
When you have finished orienting elements, click mouse button 2 or the cancel button 
in the prompt area to exit the procedure.
