Creating displays to validate element thickness

Video: Define shell mesh and element thickness

In Pre/Post, you can create three different types of displays to view and visually validate the distribution of 2D element thickness values in your model.

• You can use the Thickness Information command in the Simulation Navigator to create a “hedgehog” type display of the 2D element thickness values in your model. With the hedgehog display, the software uses both colors and the relative length of lines (drawn at the centroid of each element) to indicate the variance in thickness values across the mesh. This type of thickness display is temporary and only lasts until you refresh your graphics window.You can also use options in the Thickness Information dialog box to query the assigned thickness values at individual nodes or elements.For more information, see Displaying element thickness values.

• You can use the Display 2D Element Thickness option in the Mesh Display dialog box to have the software display the elements in the graphics window with their assigned thickness values. In this type of display, the shell elements look like solid elements. Below, (A) shows the original 2D mesh, while (B) shows the mesh with the Display 2D Element Thickness option selected.For more information, see Persistently displaying element thickness.Because this type of thickness display is persistent, once you select the Display 2D Element Thickness option, you can then use the Thickness Information command to create the hedgehog display, as shown below.

• You can use the Plot Model Contours command to generate a contour plot of shell element thicknesses as a standard post view. Thickness values are displayed as element-nodal scalar results. When you generate a thickness plot, post-processing tools can help you to view and interrogate element thicknesses. For example, you can use Edit Post View to modify the thickness display, and you can use Identify Results to probe thickness values at nodes and write thickness information to a spreadsheet or comma-separated-value file.For more information see Post views and Identifying results.

How do I

Generate a contour plot of element thickness

Edit the attributes for multiple selected entities

Learn more

Displaying element thickness values

Persistently displaying element thickness

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Creating displays to validate element thickness, Simcenter 3D 2021.1 Series

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