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

In order for the stress contours to display, select a load combination on the Axial Flexural > Results tab. The resulting stresses for the selected load combination are then displayed. There are seven stress types from which to select. They follow the conventions shown in Figure below.

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. The numbers can be modified 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.