You can use the following selection methods to specify the items that will be contained in a display group:
To specify geometry (cells, faces, or edges), assembly wires, or reference points by picking them directly from the viewport, select them from the Item list. (For datums, elements, and nodes, you must also select Pick from viewport from the Method list.) Abaqus/CAE automatically enters the pick mode, and Select items for the display group appears in the prompt area. See Chapter 6, “Selecting objects within the viewport,” for more information on picking items in the viewport.
Click Done in the prompt area when you have finished picking items in the viewport.
Click Edit selection, Add selection, or Delete selection in the dialog box to further modify your viewport selections.
To specify elements or nodes by number, select Element labels or Node labels from the Method list. Select the name of the part instance to which the nodes or elements belong from the list in the Part instance field on the right side of the Create Display Group dialog box. Type into the Labels field a list of element or node numbers separated by commas or a range of numbers optionally followed by an increment; for example, 1:10 or 1:10:2.
To specify elements in the Visualization module by type, select Element type from the Method list. A list of the available element types in your model appears on the right side of the Create Display Group dialog box. Select one or more element types from this list (see “Selecting multiple items from lists and tables,” Section 3.2.11, for more information).
To specify elements in the Visualization module by material or section, select Material assignment or Section assignment from the Method list. A list of the available materials or sections in your model appears on the right side of the Create Display Group dialog box. Select one or more materials or sections from this list (see “Selecting multiple items from lists and tables,” Section 3.2.11, for more information).
To specify elements in the Visualization module by layups or plies, select Composite Layups or Composite Plies from the Method list. A list of the available composite layups or plies in your model appears on the right side of the Create Display Group dialog box. Select one or more layups or plies from this list (see “Selecting multiple items from lists and tables,” Section 3.2.11, for more information).
To specify geometry, element, or node sets in part- and assembly-related modules or surfaces in assembly-related modules, select Set names or Surface names from the Method list. A list of the available set or surface names in your model appears on the right side of the Create Display Group dialog box. Select one or more set names from this list (see “Selecting multiple items from lists and tables,” Section 3.2.11, for more information).
To specify internal (created by Abaqus/CAE) sets in part- and assembly-related modules or internal surfaces in assembly-related modules, select Internal sets or Internal surfaces from the Item list. A list of the available set or surface names in your model appears on the right side of the Create Display Group dialog box. Select one or more set names from this list (see “Selecting multiple items from lists and tables,” Section 3.2.11, for more information).
To specify element, node, surface, or internal (created by Abaqus/CAE) sets in the Visualization module, select Element sets, Node sets, Surface sets, or Internal sets from the Method list. A list of the available set names in your model appears on the right side of the Create Display Group dialog box. Select one or more set names from this list (see “Selecting multiple items from lists and tables,” Section 3.2.11, for more information).
To select all items of the specified type in your model, select All elements, All nodes, or All surfaces from the Method list. No further item specification is necessary.
If you selected Part instances or Display groups from the Item list, a list of the available part instances or display groups in your model appears on the right side of the Create Display Group dialog box. Select one or more part instance or display group names from this list (see “Selecting multiple items from lists and tables,” Section 3.2.11, for more information).
Note: In assembly-related modules you can also display a subset of the part instances in your model using the visibility options in the Instance tabbed page of the Assembly Display Options dialog box (see “Controlling instance visibility,” Section 76.14). Part instances that have been toggled off in the Assembly Display Options dialog box cannot be made visible using display groups.
To specify elements, nodes, or surfaces containing results within a given range of values in the Visualization module, select Result value.
The output variable to be considered is displayed at the top right side of the dialog box. To select a new result variable, click Field Output; see “Selecting the field output to display,” Section 42.5, for more information on the Field Output dialog box. Choose from the filtering methods in the Type field.
If you select 
(inside) or 
(outside), enter values for the upper and lower bounds of the range of results in the Min value and Max value fields, respectively.
If you select 
, enter a value above which the results should fall in the Min value field.
If you select 
, enter a value below which the results should fall in the Max value field.
You can achieve better performance in time history animations using the status field output variable rather than the result-based display group functionality. The status field output variable allows you to remove elements that meet a specified result-based failure criteria from your model plots; see “Selecting the status field output variable,” Section 42.5.6, for more information.
Note: The bounds for filtering based on element, nodal, or surface output variables are always based on the values of a variable at the nodes. Therefore, element- and surface-based output quantities are extrapolated and averaged at the nodes before comparing them against the user-defined bounds. The averaging settings in the Result Options dialog box determine how element- and surface-based variables are calculated at the nodes. For example, consider a case where elements are filtered based on Mises stress using the default averaging threshold of 75%. After extrapolation to the nodes, the values are averaged according to this threshold. This conditional averaging may result in several distinct values of Mises stress at the node based on contributions from the various elements to which the node belongs. Any element whose Mises stress contribution falls within the user-defined bounds is included in the display group.
To specify coordinate systems in the Visualization module, select Coordinate systems from the Item list, then select one of the following:
To specify coordinate systems that are part of the output database, select Odb systems from the Method list. A list of the output database coordinate systems appears in the right side of the Create Display Group dialog box.
To specify coordinate systems that have been created during your session, select User systems from the Method list. A list of the user-defined coordinate systems appears in the right side of the Create Display Group dialog box.
To specify coordinate systems from the output database and the session, select All from the Method list. A list of the output database coordinate systems and user-defined coordinate systems appears in the right side of the Create Display Group dialog box.
To specify analysis constraints in the Visualization module, select one of the following constraint types in the Item list: Ties, Shell-to-solid couplings, Distributing couplings, Kinematic couplings, or Rigid bodies.
