3.7.1.1 ModelView

The “ModelView”-component of the “Results” subsection controls the general display properties of the structural model (see fig. 3.7.1.1.1). More specific visual properties that relate to beam and shell elements can be defined with the “BeamView” and “ShellView”-component. The viewing options get stored in the model. Settings of view-components thus stick with the model and remain valid further down the data-stream until changed by another view-component.

When adding a “ModelView” to the definition it is sometimes a good idea to turn off the preview of all other components so that they do not interfere. Clicking on the black menu headings unfolds the “ModelView”-component and unveils widgets for tuning the model display. Each of these will be explained further below. The range and current value of the sliders may be set by double-clicking on their knob.

Input-plugs

The “ModelView”-component features five plugs on its left side:

1. Model

Expects the model to be displayed.

2. LCase

Selects the load-case to be displayed parametrically. The input is a string containing selection criteria separated by "/". For details see the section about the "Load-Case Selector"-component. By default, the results of all calculated load-cases are displayed. If "Load Case Combination" in the "Result Selection" submenu is set to anything other than "none," it overrides the selection via "LCase." The model's load-case-selection settings remain unchanged until a downstream ModelView component resets them.

3. Colors

Color plots for e.g., stresses use a color spectrum from blue to white to red by default. One can customize the color range by handing over a list of RGB-values to the “Colors”-plug. There have to be at least four colors given. The first color is used for values below, the last color for values above the current number range. The remaining colors get distributed over the number range (see fig. 3.7.1.1.2). The colors are centered on zero if zero is part of the number range. Otherwise, the colors spread evenly between lower and upper numerical limit. In case you want to change the coloring defaults, go to "Edit User Settings" in the Karamba3D menu under "Settings". There it is also possible to switch off the centering around zero by setting “center_color_range_on_zero” to false.

Alternatively, it is possible to select from a list of color-ranges via the component's context menu: right-click on the component, go to item "Colors" and select a color range.

4. View

This plug-in allows users to choose specific parts of a model to be displayed. By default, the input is an empty string, indicating that the entire model should be visible. When multiple inputs are provided, they are combined using an AND operation. The input plug-in supports various input types:

• Strings: Identifier or indexes of elements to be displayed. Besides their names elements can be referred to via their index number. This allows to use the output "MaxUtilView" and "MaxDispView" of the "OptiCroSec"-component for diagnostic model views. As illustrated in Figure 3.7.1.1.1, regular expressions are also supported, starting with the character “&” and following C# regular expression conventions. Each model element identifier is compared against the string list, and any matching entry results in the element being displayed. For instance, the first example in Figure 3.7.1.1.1 limits visibility to element “A,” the second to element “B,” the third uses a regular expression to match elements “A” or “C,” and the fourth matches elements from “A” to “C.” A simplified regular expression ending with "$" can be used to select all elements whose names begin with the specified characters before the "$" sign.

• Planes: Displays all elements and associated items located on a specified plane.

• Straight Lines: Defines a vertical plane, controlling the visibility of elements, such as those aligned along a grid axis.

• Plane Surfaces: Adds elements to the visible set if all their nodes lie entirely on the specified surface.

• Volumes: Selects all elements completely enclosed within a defined solid brep.

This functionality enhances model visualization by offering flexible and precise control over element visibility. The example below shows the different options in action.

5. defDir

If the input is a vector, it defines the direction of the displacement component to be displayed, which is useful for viewing specific displacements, such as vertical ones. Alternatively, a plane can be provided to project the displacements onto it, allowing for the visualization of horizontal displacements, for example. By default, the resultant displacements are displayed.

Output-plugs

There are five output plugs on the "ModelView"-component:

The “Display”-submenu

The “Display Scales”-submenu contains check boxes and sliders to enable/disable and scale displacements, reaction forces at supports, load-symbols, support-symbols, local coordinate systems and symbols for joints at the endpoints of elements (see fig. 3.7.1.1.3). The displacement scale influences the display and the output at the "defMesh"-, "defAxes"- and "defModel"-plug. It has no effect on stresses, strains, etc. The colors of the local coordinate axes red, green, blue symbolize the local X-, Y-, and Z-axis.

The “Render Settings”-submenu

The slider entitled “Length/Segment[m]” lets one control the distance at which beam results (displacements, forces, moments, etc.) are plotted (see 3.6.7). It also sets the number of control points that are used for the “defAxes”-output and for displaying. In case of very large models or when the unit for geometry input is wrong, the default length per segment setting may lead to very long rendering times. To avoid this the karamba.ini variable "MaxEvaluationPointsInModel" limits the overall number of evaluation points to 30000 by default.

In some cases, the color display of results gets distorted by the presence of stress concentrations or utilization peeks. They make much of the structure look unstrained with some small patches of color where the peeks are. The “Upper Result Threshold”- and “Lower Result Threshold”-sliders let you eliminate these extreme values. In case of the “Upper Result Threshold”-slider a value of x% sets the upper boundary value of the color range in such a way that x% of the actual value range is below. For the lower threshold it is vice versa. Values in the model beyond the given thresholds are given special colors to make them easily recognizable.

By default, the result threshold values given above refer to the value range in percent. Sometimes it turns out to be practical to prescribe absolute values as thresholds (e.g., the yield stress of a material). The radio button group “Result Threshold as” can be used to switch between relative and absolute thresholds.

Limiting the value range of utilization values can be confusing: If the result thresholds are given in percent, then setting the lower threshold to zero and the upper to 100 displays the full range of utilization values. If the result thresholds are given as absolute values, then a lower threshold of −100 and an upper threshold of 100 limit the color range to the areas where the material resistance is sufficient.

The "Annotations"-submenu

The "Annotations"-submenu lets one display model related text information on the canvas (see fig. 3.7.1.1.4). Use the "Text Height Factor" to scale the display test. This controls also the character size of output further downstream (e.g., numbers on cross section force diagrams). For a more fine-grained control of the text output see the comments in the "karamba.ini"-file.

The “Annotations” menu contains checkboxes for adding visual information to parts of the model as follows:

The “Cross Section Colors”-submenu

Here one can enable the display of element-, cross section- and material-colors. See sections 3.1.6, 3.3.1 or 3.4.1 for how to set them. In order to to visualize the colors enable "Cross section" under "Render Settings" of the "BeamView"- or "ShellView"-component.

The “Result Selection"-submenu

This submenu exists for convenience. It offers the same functionality like the "Result Selection"-submenu of the "Result Selector"-component (see section 3.7.1.2). When the load case combination selection is set to "none" the selection via the input-plug "LCase" controls the display. Otherwise the settings in the "Result Selection" submenu override the choice provided at the input-plug.