Results¶
After running an analysis (F5), review results on the canvas, in the Results tab, and through the exports.
View modes¶
Switch with the View dropdown, View → View mode, or the Ctrl+1…Ctrl+9 accelerators. The dropdown lists only the modes that have data for the current model, so entries appear and disappear as you mesh, run, or design.
| Mode | Shortcut | Shows | Case selector |
|---|---|---|---|
| Structure | Ctrl+1 | Geometry only | load cases |
| Loads | Ctrl+2 | Applied loads | load cases |
| Fields | A field expression mapped over the model | — | |
| Modal shapes | Ctrl+3 | Mode shapes | modal cases |
| Deformed shape | Ctrl+4 | Cubic-Hermite deflected shape | analysis cases / sequences / combinations |
| Displacements | Nodal-displacement diagram along members | analysis cases / sequences / combinations | |
| Reactions | Ctrl+5 | Support reaction arrows + sum | analysis cases / sequences / combinations |
| Constraint forces | Force each constraint applies at its nodes | analysis cases / sequences / combinations | |
| Bending moment | Ctrl+6 | M diagram along members | analysis cases / sequences / combinations |
| Shear force | Ctrl+7 | V diagram | analysis cases / sequences / combinations |
| Axial force | Ctrl+8 | N diagram | analysis cases / sequences / combinations |
| Stress (σ) / Forces | Triangle field: plane membrane stresses σx, σy, τxy, σ1, σ2, von Mises (kN/m²); plate slab forces mx, my, mxy, m1, m2, vx, vy and Wood–Armer (W-A) design moments (kNm/m) | analysis cases / sequences / combinations | |
| Reinforcement (As) | Ctrl+9 | EC2 bar flexural reinforcement envelope | design results |
| Shear reinf. (Asw) | EC2 bar shear reinforcement | design results | |
| Shell reinf. (As) | EC2 membrane reinforcement of triangles | design results | |
| Crack width (wk) | EC2 SLS crack-width verification | design results |
The Fields mode requires a compiled mesh; the stress mode needs triangle elements; the reinforcement and crack modes need the matching design run. The analysed mesh itself is inspected via the Mesh overlay checkbox on the Structure view (Display panel ▸ Model tab), not a separate view mode. The Constraint forces mode appears only when the model has constraints.
Only modes with available data are enabled. Use the Case dropdown to pick which analysis case, sequence, or combination to display; for Modal, choose the Mode number. When a construction sequence is selected, a phase selector appears in the toolbar to navigate phase by phase. A Cumulative / Increment toggle controls whether displacements show the running total (Σ Δu) or only the current phase's increment (Δu); forces and reactions always reflect the accumulated state up to the selected phase.
The triangle-field view is domain-aware: its title reads Stress in a plane model and Forces in a plate model, and the component selector lists the matching quantities (σ… vs mx, my, …, W-A). In a plane model a Forces (N=σ·t) checkbox converts the membrane stresses into forces per unit width — Nx, Ny, Nxy, N1, N2 in kN/m, each scaled by the triangle's own thickness (von Mises is omitted, having no force meaning). Plate results are already stress resultants, so no toggle appears there.
Scale and undeformed reference¶
For deformed and diagram views, the Scale spin box sets the magnification. With Auto on, the result is fitted to about 10 % of the model span. In the deformed and modal views, an Undeformed structure checkbox toggles the reference geometry; support markers stay visible if their layer is enabled.
The look of each result view — colour map, banded vs. continuous fill, levels, contour lines, smoothing and colour-scale range for the field views, and the sign colours, opacity, line width and value labels for the M/V/N diagrams and the utilisation-ratio colouring — is set live in the Style tab of the Display panel, and persists via Preferences ▸ Display.
Reactions and equilibrium¶
The Reactions view draws an arrow per support and a corner box with the Σ reactions (ΣRx, ΣRy, ΣMz) — the total support force, which doubles as an equilibrium check against the applied loads.
Spring reactions are drawn too: node springs as labelled arrows, and element (Winkler) foundation springs as a distributed reaction diagram with numeric values (reaction per unit length) at each element end. The colour shows the state — blue for compression (the spring pushes the structure) and red for tension (it pulls). For a NonLinear case the unilateral state is respected: sections where a tension-/compression-only spring is inactive show zero reaction (e.g. the lifted part of a footing carries no soil reaction), instead of the spurious tension a Linear case would draw.
Constraint forces¶
For a model with constraints, the
Constraint forces view draws — in magenta — the force each constraint applies
at the nodes it couples: an arrow for Fx and Fy and a label for the moment
Mz. This is the force you could apply instead of the constraint to get the
same displacements: for a rigid link it is the force and moment transmitted
through the link; for an equal-DOF tie it is the internal tie force (equal and
opposite between the tied nodes).
The value is recovered as the residual of the physical stiffness at the coupled DOFs — the same method used for support reactions — so it is well-conditioned despite the penalty. The same numbers appear in the Constraint forces table of the Results report and the Excel export (only when constraints exist).
Cuts¶
A cut is a straight segment you draw across the model to read the resultant of the internal forces crossing it — bars and areas, combined and separately — for one case or combination at a time. Unlike everything else on this page, a cut needs no re-run when added, renamed or moved: it is a report definition over whatever is already solved.
Analysis → Cuts → Add cut… picks two points on the canvas (any two points, not necessarily nodes) and opens a small dialog for the cut's Name — the only field you set; there is no separate id to manage, and two cuts cannot share a name. Manage cuts… lists every cut with its endpoints for add/edit/delete. Cuts are drawn on the canvas as a plain segment with its name and a short arrow along the normal — the side the arrow points to is the positive side: results are reported as what the positive side exerts on the negative side.
Analysis → Cuts → Results… opens the results side panel: pick a cut and a
case/combination, and a table shows the resultant in three rows — Bars,
Areas, Total — with columns N, V, M for a plane cut (axial along the
cut's normal, shear along its tangent, in-plane moment about the cut's
midpoint) or V, Mb, Mt for a plate cut (transverse shear, bending and
twisting moment — the same mn/mnt split the triangle stress
view uses). Below the table, a small plot shows the chosen
per-length area field along the cut, with a marker at every point a bar
crosses it. Export CSV… writes the same table for the selected case, or
every case at once, to a spreadsheet-ready file.
See dev/CUT_PLAN.md for the sign conventions and engine-api.md for the
Python API (xdfem2d.cuts.cut_result and friends) if you are scripting
against a model instead of using the GUI.
The Results report¶
The Results tab (Analysis → Results) prints a full text report:
- per load case, combination and analysis case: displacements, reactions (with a Σ row), and element end-forces;
- element span extremes (|N|max, |V|max, M⁺, M⁻);
- modal tables with frequency, period, effective mass per mode and the running cumulative mass (ΣX%, ΣY%).
Exports¶
- Write Report… (Ctrl+Shift+W) — a PDF, Word, or Excel report; pick the format and the content (tables, drawings, result views per case).
- Write Tables to Excel… (Ctrl+Shift+T) — one-click workbook of the model and result tables (Displacements, Reactions, Constraint forces, Element forces, Span extremes, Reaction sums, Modal). The Constraint-forces sheet appears only when the model has constraints.
See Exporting.