Layers

Layers enable you to organize and categorize components of your model. You can use layers to visualize, manipulate, and edit your model more efficiently.

Typically you will want to organize layers either by function or by entity type, as shown in the table below. Functional layers are more common and offer more flexibility because you can access entity types within layers.

Example of layers categorized by function	Example of layers categorized by entity type
Top Cover	Node Layer
Bottom Cover	Beam Layer
Hose	Triangle Layer
Runner

The Layers panel

The Layers panel allows you to add, activate, delete, and modify the layers associated with your model. Click Assign Layer to assign model entities to individual layers.

Tip: When using a large number of layers, constant scrolling of the layer list may be required. To rearrange the order so that layers being worked on are placed next to each other in the list, use the Move Up, Move Down, and Show All Layers options in the right-mouse button context menu from the required layer.

Diagnostic layers

Whenever you are performing a mesh diagnostic check, you have the option of placing the result in a diagnostic layer. Only two diagnostic layers are ever created because there will normally be an overlap between the elements that make up the different diagnostics. Since no element can ever belong to more than one layer, it is not possible to maintain each layer's consistency across diagnostic checks.

For example, if you display bad aspect ratio elements and then display overlapping elements, some elements may be removed from the layer generated by the aspect ratio diagnostic.

Therefore, the layers are named diagnostic/old diagnostic to indicate that the data is not valid in the long term.

Using layers with results

You can utilize layers to view deflections and other results in certain areas of a model. The results automatically scale to the entities assigned to the visible layers. First you will have to create a new layer, and then assign the entities you want to that layer.

After assigning the entities to a layer, make sure only the layers for which you want to view results are visible. Now when you view results, they are displayed and scaled to visible layers only. For Warp results, you can set up an anchor plane. This is a very useful feature if you are concerned with warpage in one area of a part, or in the case of multi-cavity or family molds, you want to isolate individual cavities.

As an example, suppose you are interested in how far the part is warping out of plane (Z direction) on the bottom surface of a model. To isolate the results, place the bottom surface into a new layer called Bottom. The results will be scaled to the visible layer, and it will be much easier to view the results for that area.

Note: X, Y, and Z directions are defined by the anchor plane and not globally, so use caution when interpreting results.