The Trapped Beam diagnostic is used to locate beam elements that are overlapping, as indicated by the position of their centroids.
The diagnostic looks for beam element centroids that are contained (or "trapped") inside other beam elements, and highlights them in red.
To access this diagnostic, click
().
Dialog elements
- Display or text
- Specifies whether to show the diagnostics results as a graphical representation or a text report (not available for all diagnostics).
- Display mesh/model
- Specifies whether to display only the diagnostic results, or to display the model along with the diagnostic results.
- Place results in diagnostics layer
- Specifies whether to store the results of the mesh/surface diagnostic in a layer, separate from other layers. If you select this option, the diagnostic command automatically creates a diagnostic layer if none existed previously.
- Restrict to visible entities
- When this option is off, the diagnostic check is performed on all instances of the relevant entity when you display the diagnostic plot. Every time you make a change to the model, the displayed diagnostic plot is automatically updated. For large models, the automatic update of the diagnostic plot as you make each change to the model can lead to considerable delays, particularly when editing the mesh to resolve element overlaps or intersections.
When this option is on, the diagnostic check is performed only on visible entities. By hiding parts of the model and leaving only areas of interest visible, you can increase the plot update speed and work more efficiently.
Select Restrict to visible entities, which is normally used in combination with Place results in diagnostics layer, and click Show. With the problem elements on the Diagnostic results layer, expand the layer. Each time Apply is clicked on a mesh editing tool while cleaning up problem elements, the diagnostic will be recalculated on only the visible elements.