The latest version of Flexcom can be truly considered as an integrated engineering environment, with all the necessary tools available “in one box”. One tool which is certainly useful is the Model View – it provides a “live” structure preview facility during model building. It is continually updated based on the information you specify. For example, if you add a new node/element to the model, then it will automatically appear in the structure preview facility. The preview allows you to visually inspect all the nodal coordinates in your model, and the finite element connectivity. Any fundamental problems should be immediately apparent, for example if you have defined a node which has not yet been assigned to an element, or if there are cable sections which are too long or too short. The Model View allows you to rotate and pan the viewpoint, to zoom in and out, and has many other useful display features (feel free to experiment) such node and element numbering, nodal coordinates, seabed topography, water surface profile etc.
