The Safety Factor Guided Result is shown by default when you first enter Results for a static stress study.

Results interpretation

The top section of the Guided results interprets the Safety Factor result and tells you whether or not your design can withstand the applied loads. The colors on the model match the colors in the guided results and the legend, to make the distinction clear.

The Traffic Light Plot displays the complete safety factor distribution using three color zones based on your threshold values (default: red < 2.0, green 2.0-4.0, blue > 4.0).

There are three possible outcomes from a Safety Factor result that indicate the likelihood that your design will withstand the applied loads:

• Red - the safety factor is below the lower target (default 2.0), indicating the design may bend or break
• Green - the safety factor is between the lower and upper targets (default 2.0-4.0), indicating an acceptable design
• Blue - the safety factor exceeds the upper target (default 4.0), indicating the design appears to be over-engineered

Click on the interactive legend to adjust the threshold sliders so you can focus on specific safety factor ranges. The length of each colored section on the legend reflects the ratio of the model with safety factor values that fall into that category.

Next Steps

The bottom half of the guided results panel provides you with options to try to increase the likelihood that your design will withstand the applied loads without failing. Each of the recommendations is based on structural engineering best practices and the study settings for the specific study.

The accordion sections that appear depend on your actual results:

• Below Safety Factor Target (red) - appears when your design has areas with safety factor below the lower threshold
• Meets Safety Factor Target (green) - appears when your design has areas with safety factor in the acceptable range
• Above Safety Factor Limit (blue) - appears when your design has areas with safety factor above the upper threshold

The most critical next steps are listed first. If your design has areas below the safety factor target (red), those recommendations appear at the top of the list.

Changing one parameter, such as increasing material thickness or adding reinforcements, may improve the safety factor in one area, yet have an adverse effect on another. Adjusting the parameters, therefore, is often simply an iterative process.

Tips

• Next steps are listed in order of priority, with critical issues (red) shown first
• Next steps are grouped by validation actions and design modification actions
• Use Below Target visualization to focus exclusively on critical areas that need strengthening
• Use Above Target visualization to identify over-engineered regions for optimization
• If you decide to modify your design, clone and modify the Simulation model to test out different modifications so you don't alter your original design unnecessarily