Element Quality View

The Element Quality view allows you to investigate each specific element criteria, view a breakdown of all failed and worst elements, resolve all criteria violations at one time, and evaluate the over all quality of a mesh.

Element Quality View is a permanent visualization mode that HyperMesh displays in the upper left-hand corner of the graphics area when you select By Element Quality on the Visualization toolbar.


Figure 1.

Multiple Criteria Legend

When you select Element Quality View, HyperMesh displays the Multiple Criteria legend by default.


Figure 2.
In this legend, you can:
  • Review the different 2D element criteria's.
  • Adjust the initial threshold values assigned to each 2D element criteria.
  • Select specific criteria's to investigate further.
The Element Quality View tool bases the initial threshold values on the ideal, good, warn, fail (default), and worst values that are defined in the current 2D element criteria settings. By default, this tool bases the initial threshold values on the fail column. You can directly edit these values from the Element Quality View or you can edit them in the Criteria File Editor.
Note: Any changes that you make in the Element Quality View will impact all of the other Element Quality View settings. The changes that you make to the threshold values in the Element Quality View will not effect the values in the criteria file, but any changes that you make to the criteria file will effect the Element Quality View.

When you click a criteria in the Multiple Criteria legend, a single criteria specific legend appears to the right of the threshold values. The elements are color coded according to how well they adhere to the quality requirements in the graphics area.

Single Criteria Legend

Each 2D element criteria, in the Multiple Criteria legend, has its own single criteria legend. The single criteria legends consists of a color coded sliding scale, which you can use to evaluate the elements in the graphics area and resolve all criteria violations.


Figure 3.
The colors exhibited in the sliding scale reflect the quality of each element in the graphics area. The elements that are of the best quality will always display in blue, whereas, the elements that are of the worst quality will always display in red. The Element Quality View tool determines the quality of each element using the 2D element criteria that you defined in the Multiple Criteria legend.


Figure 4.

The Element Quality View tool always lists the values in the sliding scale from low to high, with the lowest value always being at the bottom of the scale and the highest value always being at the top. This tool always defines the first and last values in the legend with the minimum and maximum values. You cannot edit the minimum and maximum values.

The second and second to last values are the initial legend range coverage, based on the good to worst, warn to worst (default), fail to worst, and min to max values. These values are taken from the criteria file, and can be edited. The Element Quality View tool interpolates the values in between these.

Each single criteria legend contains a slider that is located, by default, at the exact, current threshold position. If the initial legend range coverage does not provide the threshold value set defined in the settings, then the slider will be positioned to the closest available value. To view a breakdown of all of the failed and worse elements, move the slider up and down.

Element Quality View Options and Settings

Overview of the options and settings used to control the Element Quality view.

Multiple Criteria Context Menu

To access the Multiple Criteria context menu, right-click on the Multiple Criteria legend.
No Result As
Change how elements that fail all of the 2D element criteria appear in the graphics area. By default, these elements are shaded in gray. To make these elements invisible, click transparent.
Set Threshold Values
Set the threshold values to one of the following levels: worst, fail (default), warn, good, and ideal.
Note: When you select a different level to set the threshold values to, the values will reset to the values that are read from the current criteria file settings.
Edit Criteria
Opens the Criteria File Editor, from which you can edit the current 2D element criteria in the criteria file.
Note: As long as the Criteria File Editor is open, you cannot modify the legends in the Element Quality View.
Configure Quality View
Opens the Element Quality View Configuration dialog, from which you can:
  • Change the color assigned to each criteria.
  • Select which element criteria you would like to display in the Multiple Criteria legend.
  • Rearrange the order of the element criteria in the Multiple Criteria legend

Single Criteria Context Menu

To access the Single Criteria context menu, right-click on a single criteria legend.
Close XXX Legend
Closes the single criteria legend that is currently open, and activates the Multiple Criteria legend.
Set Legend Range
Set the legend range of the threshold values by selecting one of the following options: good to worst, warn to worst, fail to worst, and min to max. This option is not enabled when the Quality Index legend is open.
Beyond Threshold As
Changes how the elements that have no results or have higher/lower values are displayed in the graphics area. The following display options are available: Transparent, Feature Lines, and Off (default).
Edit Criteria
Opens the Criteria File Editor, from which you can edit the current 2D element criteria in the criteria file.
Note: As long as the Criteria File Editor is open, you cannot modify the legends in the Element Quality View.
Configure Quality View
Opens the Element Quality View Configuration dialog, where you can:
  • Change the color assigned to each criteria.
  • Select which element criteria you would to display in the Multiple Criteria legend.
  • Rearrange the order of the element criteria in the Multiple Criteria legend

Element Quality Configuration Dialog

In the Element Quality View Configuration dialog, you can customize the appearance of the Element Quality View tool, and select the criteria that appears in the Multiple Criteria legend. Open this dialog by clicking Configure Quality View from the right-click element quality view context menu.

The Element Quality View Configuration dialog contains a list of all possible 2D element criteria that you can display in the Multiple Criteria legend. To select which 2D element criteria you would like to display in the Multiple Criteria legend, select or clear each element criteria's checkbox. Click the blue up and down arrows to rearrange the order the 2D element criteria will appear in, in the Multiple Criteria legend.
Note: If you change the order of the element criteria after you have adjusted the threshold values in the Multiple Criteria legend, the threshold values will reset to their fail values. It is best to change the order of the element criteria first, and then change the threshold values in the Multiple Criteria legend.
You can also change the display color of each criteria in this dialog by selecting a new color from the color pallet.


Figure 5.