The Mesh Options pop-up dialog allows you to configure the mesh for the stress contours display.

In order for the stress contours to display, you must first select a load combination. In order to select a load combination, you must first select a section cut, and then select one of the load combinations in the Results Tab of the Axial/Flexural Tab.

The stress type refers to the direction of the stress calculation. The first five options here correspond are shown in the following diagram:

The S Min and S Max settings are the principal minimum and maximum stresses.

The Mesh check box controls whether or not the mesh itself is displayed. The Smooth check box controls whether the stresses at each mesh node are averaged together for all shell elements that share that node. Checking it averages the stresses; unchecking it displays the calculated stress for each shell independently.

The scale shows what each color means. You can change the numbers at each end of the scale, thus changing the range of stresses. By moving the numbers closer to zero, more regions show up as red, and regions in between are stretched, potentially giving a better view of what is happening.