Thermal Bridge Heat Transfer & Vapour Diffusion Simulation Program AnTherm Version 6.115 - 10.137

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The order of elements - overlapping effects

Within the Element Browser window click New with the mouse. A new, empty element will be created and appended to the list of elements.

The Element Editor displays properties of the new element. It is an EmptyBox with zeroed dimensions (elements of zeroed dimensions have no effect within the model)

Following the earlier description enter following data within Element Editor for the new element:
  • X1: 2, X2: 8
  • Y1: 2, Y2: 8
  • Z1: 2, Z2: 8
  • Type: SpaceBox
  • Surface name: Interior surface
  • Alpha: 10
  • Space name: Interior space

and confirm the entry with the TAB key.

The new element is enclosed by other elements. Due to the fact being the last element in the list it overlaps all other elements.
Within the Element3D window switch the visualization from Solid to Wireframe by turning the switch Solid off. The wire frame representation within the 3D view allows us to see selected elements not being covered (obscured) by surfaces shown for solids.
Within Element Browser click onto various elements and observe the changes to the selection display in graphical windows.  
Within Element Browser click onto the last element – it shall be the  SpaceBox of the „Interior space" – to select that element.  
Within the Element Browser click several times onto the button Relegate - until the SpaceBox of the interior space has moved to the Front of the List. While changing the order of elements please observe the effects of overlapping within graphical views which significantly change being dependant on current sequence.
Reorder elements to receive following final sequence:
  1. Exterior space
  2. Material
  3. Interior space

to create overlapping effect resembling the modelled construction by using Promote/Relegate command from the Element Browser.

The element "Exterior space" encloses the rest, but it is overlapped (hollowed) by element following it in the list.

Similarly the material element is hollowed by the interior space box.

Why is overlapping/hollowing of elements done dynamically? Where is the gouge function.

Many CAD application provide a static hollowing function (i.e. you select an element or a group of 3D objects and the application to gouge through them). Such hollowing operation result in extremely large number of oddments, normally much higher then the original number of elements. At the same time the original structure gets lost after such operation  If the user decide, that the operation had undesired effect he can either repeat the data entry or must undo the whole operation.
To compensate on that tree element structures are used often – each element, after being hollowed by other elements, brakes into a new branch holding all resulting oddments. As a result of many such operations a very deep tree structure is created which is very difficult to undo and, with very complex models, cannot be managed without additional, extensive and potentially very sophisticated tools.

For the both reasons (unmanageable complexity at each further step, high learning costs, error-prone programming effort) we have decided to keep things simple within a simple, linear list and use the order of the list for dynamic hollowing providing same result at much less learning effort.

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 Model, Calculate, Simulate and Analyse Thermal Heat Bridges in 2D and 3D with AnTherm®  

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