3.  Change working plane to polar and create first circle.

The next step in the model construction is to create the half circle at each end of the bracket. We’ll actually create a full circle on each end and then combine the circles and rectangles with a Boolean "add" operation (discussed in step 5.). To create the circles, we’ll use and display the working plane. We could have shown the working plane as we created the rectangles but it was not necessary.

Before we begin however, let’s first "zoom out" within the Graphics Window so we can see more of our circles as we create them. This is done using the "Pan-Zoom-Rotate" dialog box, a convenient graphics control box you’ll use often in any ANSYS session.

1. Utility Menu:  PlotCtrls
        Pan, Zoom, Rotate
2. Click on small dot once to zoom out  -»
3. Close dialog box  -»
4. Utility Menu:  WorkPlane
        Display Working Plane (toggle on)

Notice the working plane origin is immediately plotted in the Graphics Window. It is indicated by the WX and WY symbols; right now coincident with the global origin X and Y symbols. Next we’ll change the WP type to polar, change the snap increment, and display the grid.

5. Utility Menu:  WorkPlane
        WP Settings
6. Click on Polar  -»
7. Click on Grid and Triad  -»
8. Enter .1 for snap increment  -»
9. OK to define settings and close the dialog box  -»

10. Main Menu:  Preprocessor
         -Modeling-Create
              -Areas-Circle
                   Solid Circle
    NOTE:  Be sure to read prompt before picking.  -»
11. Pick center point at WP X=0, WP Y=0 (in Graphics Window shown below)
12. Move mouse to radius of 1 and click left button to create circle

13. OK to close picking menu  -»
14. Toolbar:  SAVE_DB

NOTE:  While you are positioning the cursor for picking, the "dynamic" WP X and Y values are displayed in the Solid Circular Area dialog box.  Also, as an alternative to picking, these values along with the radius can be typed into the dialog box.