Skelebrator offers numerous other features that improve the flexibility and ease-of-use of the skeletonization process.

The Skeletonization Preview option allows you to preview the effects that a given skeletonization step, or method, will have on the model. This important tool can assist the modeler in finding potential problems with the reduced model before a single element is removed from it.

Before skeletonization is begun or between steps, you can use Skelebrator’s protected element feature to manually mark any junctions or pipes as non-removable. Any pipes marked in this way will always be preserved by the Skelebrator, even if the elements meet the removal criteria of the skeletonization process in question. This option provides the modeler with an additional level of control as well as improving the flexibility of the process.

The ability of the Skelebrator to preserve network integrity by not removing elements that would cause the network to be invalidated is an important timesaving feature that can prevent this common error from happening. There may be circumstances, however, when you do not want or need this additional check, so this option can be switched off.

For the utmost control over the skeletonization process, you can perform a manual skeletonization. This feature allows you to step through each individual removal candidate. The element can then be removed or marked to be excluded from the skeletonization. You can save this process and choices you made and reuse them in an automatic skeletonization of the same model.