Is it possible to have Op=New removed so that loads and boundary conditions from previous step are carried forward when required?
I understand that you can manually edit inp file outside PrePoMax and run it there, but just something to make users life easy.
Just a thought.
Well, I think that carrying the loads and BCs automatically is great when inp files are edited by hand. But creating the model using the user interface and exploring it using the tree things get trickier. What happens when a user disables a load.
To solve modification of loads and BCs in the following steps a propagate function (right click) was added but a true load and BC manager is still missing.
Hmmm, I didn’t think that through properly isn’t it. You are correct, if user disables a load and if the following load is having BCs and Loads carrying from previous, this will be trouble.
The only reason I put this post was that in my recent FE analysis, I had to do 6 steps (Load Cases) where the first 3 cases had loads such as:
Case 1: Gravity
Case 2: Gravity + Pressure on certain parts of the model
Case 3: Gravity + Pressure + Forces on certain parts of the model
BCs for all 3 cases above were same. Now what happened is that I wanted to change boundary condition for the first 3 cases and there were 33 instances of supports that needed a change in boundary condition (Changing Dx=0 to Dx=Unrestrained), so I had to change it for 99 supports. It was a bit tiring.
Is it possible that we can have a toggle for OP=new, when user has OP=new checked, then loads and BCs are copied and user can change them, but when it is not checked, they are carried forward. Just like flipping a switch and PrePoMax does necessary copying/deletion in .inp file as required.
Just thinking out loud 
Ok, I understand the issue. An option to disable Op=New could be added with a big warning message
But that is why a propagate feature was added. So you had to change 33 BCs by hand for the first step (case). Then you could select all of them in the first step and choose Right-click → Propagate to copy their settings to the following steps. The only drawback is that all of the following steps would be overwritten and (I tested it now) a warning message for each single overwrite is shown. That could be improved.
Lets change that drawback to our advantage. Can you add one more step after user clicks “Propagate” where user is asked which load cases do they want this change to propagate?
So in my case above, I could have changed 33 supports on Case 1, then selected all 33 and clicked “Propagate” and then, I would select Case 2 and Case 3. That way my Case 4, 5 and 6 would still have retained their values.
This way we are not changing the entire philosophy of Op=New and Propagate but just making a minor adjustment.
How does this sound?
That is exactly the direction I was thinking about. But I would like to keep the simplicity of the current solution (no additional popup window) and somehow add the additional functionality. Maybe a dedicated step, step-feature manager would be a way to go.
