🕶️ Visualisation
The visualisation components draw the model and its results directly in the Rhino viewport. Before an analysis they are how you catch a modelling mistake; afterwards they are how you read the answer.
Components in this tab
| Component | Nickname | Draws |
|---|---|---|
| Model View | ModelView | The model — elements, supports, loads, IDs, local axes, end releases — and any result on it: displacements, beam force diagrams, beam stresses, shell forces and stresses, solid stresses, reactions. |
| Principal Stress Lines | Principal Stress Lines | Streamlines following the principal directions: over shells, or through solids. |
| Shell Section | Shell Section | A section drawn across shells: the diagram of the forces along it, and their totals. |
| Legend | Legend | A fixed on-screen colour scale. |
| Colors | Colors | 18 ready-made gradients to feed Model View and Legend. |
A working habit
- Model View first, every time, before running anything. Turn on supports and loads and check they are where you drew them.
- Run the analysis.
- Model View again, with Displacement ticked under Results with Deformed shape ticked — a displaced shape that looks wrong usually is wrong, and spots a missing restraint faster than any number will.
- Then switch it to the quantity you actually need, with a Colors gradient and a Legend.
Colours and ranges
Model View has two inputs for this:
- Colors — a list of colours forming the gradient. Leave it empty for the default (Turbo), or feed it from Colors.
- Range — a domain fixing the values the gradient spans. Leave it empty and each view scales to its own min and max, which means two views of the same model are not comparable. Set it explicitly whenever you compare load cases or steps.