D3PLOT 22.1

Common Plotting Attributes

Common Plotting Attributes

LABEL VALUES Labelling values on diagram plots

The right hand figure above also shows the effect of turning on the LABEL_VALUES switch: values at beam end points are shown. This option is only useful when there are relatively few beams on the display, with a lot of beams being labelled the screen will become a mass of numbers. (The LABEL option, using "dynamic" labelling of beams with the DATA_VALUE switch on, provides a more selective way of drawing element data values on the screen.)

REVERSE_END_2 Sign convention used for beam plot display

The convention when drawing bending moment diagrams is to plot the diagram on the tensile side of the element. However the mathematics would suggest otherwise:

In the example used here (encastre beam, point load) the moments at the two ends of this beam are clockwise (+ve) and anti-clockwise (-ve) respectively, so at one end a +ve value must be drawn on the tensile side but at the other end a -ve value. Hence the need to reverse the sign of the "end 2" value for plotting purposes only. The author has never seen plots drawn without this reversal but, for completeness, the ability to produce them is provided with the REVERSE_END_2 switch: turn it off to see mathematically "pure" plots.

IGNORE_BEAM_TYPE Ignore whether a beam is integrated or resultant when contouring integrated and resultant beam components

When this switch is off D3PLOT will use information in the ZTF file to determine whether a beam element is integrated or resultant type and will only plot corresponding integrated or resultant beam components on the beam elements. If the switch is on (or there is no ZTF file) then when user selects an integrated or resultant beam component all beams will be contoured with the value in the corresponding extra data slot, which will show inapplicable values on some beams. See Notes on Beam Data for more information.