There are five mesh diagnostic tools that can be used for diagnosing problems with the mesh.
These are:
- Aspect Ratio
- Identifies elements that have an aspect ratio above a specified limit.
- Overlapping Elements
- Identifies elements that overlap or intersect, and therefore occupy the same space.
- Orientation
- Helps identify elements whose top/bottom sides are defined inconsistently.
- Connectivity
- Identifies elements that are not connected to the rest of the mesh.
- Free Edges
- Identifies element edges that are not shared, which may indicate gaps or holes in the mesh.
Prior to using any of these mesh diagnostic tools, it is recommended that you select: 
() to get an overview of your model quality. This assists you when working with large models. If any issues exist with the mesh, you can then select the relevant diagnostic check.
For models with a large number of elements, Mesh Diagnostics can take a bit longer. The following information focuses on ways to work effectively in these situations.
- Select Place results in diagnostics layer. You can then turn off all the remaining layers in the model and work with the elements in the diagnostics layer.
- If the diagnostic check finds a large number of problem elements, it may be worthwhile to create new layers and assign a subset of the problem elements to these layers.
- At the time of mesh editing, turn off the display of mesh diagnostics. You can do this by selecting the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+D. This is important, because if the diagnostics display is on, it keeps track of changes made to the mesh, and on large models, this can be memory intensive.
- Change the color of the elements in the diagnostics layer. This can be done by clicking the Display option in the Layers pane and will help you in separating them from the other elements.
- With certain mesh problems, it may be necessary to view the adjacent elements (for example, when the mesh has large aspect ratio elements or free edge elements). In these cases, use the Expand option in the Layers pane, which automatically pulls the adjacent elements into that layer, allowing you to modify the mesh.
- Change the Display option to Text. When you click the Show button, the textual result shows the maximum aspect ratio and the number of elements that have an aspect ratio value between the minimum and maximum values you specified.
After you have completed the mesh editing, we recommend that you run the mesh diagnostic again to confirm that the problem has been resolved.