Controlling Mesh Display
Using the Simulation Display dialog box, you can control various aspects of the mesh display enabling you to:
• view the elements in a mesh in a larger model more clearly
• view shell elements in a mesh with zero or actual thickness
• specify display refinement for mesh viewing
Use the Mesh Display area on the Mesh tab of the Simulation Display dialog box to control the appearance of a mesh. This area includes:
• Shrink Elements—Shrink elements in a mesh to clearly view their 3D shapes. Enter a value in the spin box to shrink the elements by the given percentage. This option is primarily useful for large models or models with meshing problems, where shrinking the elements can help you identify poor element shapes or locate problem areas.
• Display Shells with Zero Thickness—Display shells in a mesh with zero thickness. This option is available only if you select the Shells option on the Mesh Entities area.
Selecting this option ensures a quicker mesh display because Creo Simulate displays the elements as a 2D rendition, which provides an accurate footprint of the mesh while saving the time required for a 3D rendition.
To display shells with the actual thickness, clear this check box. Displaying actual thickness lets you make sure that shells in a mesh are correctly defined and have the intended thickness. Note that if a shell is made up of layers, Creo Simulate displays the shell elements with the total shell thickness and not with the individual layer thicknesses.
• Display Quality—Change the display quality of a mesh for better viewing of the curved elements. Select Coarse, Medium, or Fine whereFine is the closest approximation to the original shape of the curved element. Creo Simulate displays a coarse quality mesh by default.
Creo Simulate enhances the display quality by improving the tesselation of the nonlinear curved elements in a mesh. Therefore, selecting Medium or Fine may not be effective for models with linear shaped elements or for models with highly refined meshes, where the curved elements are already very small. The only time you may need a Medium or Fine setting for a refined mesh is if you are zooming in closely on the curved elements.
You can also set the initial state of your mesh display through the
Simulation Display Mesh options in the
config.pro file.