Results - Displacements
Last updated: February 01, 2022
Following a successful analysis of one or more stories, the user can select to display the global displaced shape and displacement contours from each story's analysis. Click Apply to have the current selections displayed on the screen.
The display options selected here are only visible on the screen while this dialog box is displayed. The dialog box can be moved and the screen printed and model manipulated (zoom etc) while this window is displayed.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Story | Select the Story for which to display the displaced shape from the analysis. When a story is selected all the analyzed load cases for that story will be available for selection in the Load Case drop-down. When the user selects Apply, only the meshed elements of the structure that were part of the analysis of this story will be displayed. |
| Load Case | Select the load case for which to display the nodal displacements. The load case in the drop down menu are the applied loads in the modeler and does not contain any skip loading cases. Click Apply to have the nodal displacements displayed on the screen for the current load case. Load Cases are labeled according to their type (Dead Load = DL, Live Load Reducible = LLred, Live Load Unreducible and Partition = LLunred, Live Load Storage = LLstor, and live load roof = LLroof). |
| Show Displacement Contour | Select this option to see the global displacement contours on the meshed elements (two-way floor slab elements). A color palette shown at the bottom shows different colors used in the displacement contour display (see description below for more info). |
| Show Displaced Shape | Select this option to view the displaced shape of the story. |
| Animate | Select this option to animate the displaced shape of the story. |
| Show Mesh | Select this option to view the finite element mesh. |
| Scale Factor | This scale factor is provided to scale the displacements in the generated view. |
| Transparency Slider | This transparency slider is provided to control the transparency of the displacement contours. |
| Color Palette Legend | A color palette shows the range of colors associated with showing deflection contours of different magnitudes on the screen (see Show Displacement Contours above). The palette is centered on zero deflection (dark green) with negative (downward) displacement values extending to color red and upward, positive values to dark blue. The maximum displacement value for the selected story and load type is indicated on the ends of the slider in the unit indicated in the dialog title (mm or in). The engineer can also adjust the range of colors associated with the deflection values by clicking and dragging the slider (small triangle) located at each end of the color palette. As the slider is dragged the displacement value will show on the slider. Using this control an engineer can establish a displacement limit, drag the triangle slider to that limit, and the program will color all elements with displacement larger than the limit in the extreme color (red or blue). |