If you want to consider guide objects in the overall view (F8 key or double-click on the mouse wheel) or, for example, in a particular direction of the views, you can enable this option in the settings of the particular guide objects (guidelines, background layers, line grids).
RFEM and RSTAB offer many display options in the Display Navigator. They can be completely different, depending on their function. You often have to click several times to make certain changes. If you want to optimize your work, you can create user‑defined views. In these views, you can save all specified settings. The following example illustrates this principle.
You can color the surfaces in the direction of the local z‑axis using the indicated option in the Display Navigator. By default, the side lying in the negative z-direction is colored red and the side lying in the positive z-direction is colored blue.
An individual user‑defined workspace can increase your productivity and make your daily work easier. This is why many users take the opportunity to adjust the toolbars in RFEM and RSTAB and to create their own toolbars containing the most frequently used commands.
In RFEM and RSTAB, you can now also display and check the types of members used visually, by means of colors. To do this, an option has been integrated into the Display Navigator.
If, after defining the generated loads belonging together, you switch to the visibility mode, the loads are also shown on the hidden structural elements.
Often in RFEM, only part of a surface must be loaded, not an entire surface. A typical case of this is soil pressure. For this purpose, there is the option of defining free surface loads. They are surface-independent and are displayed in defined coordinate dimensions in the graphic.
The RF‑/JOINTS add‑on modules are equipped with a graphical window that shows all the structural components of the connection. There, you can use the mouse functions known from RFEM and RSTAB to zoom, move, or rotate the view.
For a quick overview of the cross‑sections used, you can show the members in color sorted by cross‑section. Use the right mouse button in the work window to select "Colors in Graphics According to" → "Cross -Sections" from the shortcut menu. In the current program versions, you can use a panel with an editable color scale for this.
The transparency intensity of various graphic elements in the Solid Transparent Display Mode can be edited individually in the Program Options dialog box under the Graphic tab to improve the overview.
The display size of the load vectors can be adjusted quickly in the load shortcut menu: Right-click the load icon and select "Increase Display Size" or "Reduce Display Size" from the menu.
For a clearer display of the structure, you can display it in different colors. The corresponding selection can be opened by right-clicking the work window.
To better distinguish between the different layer compositions (for example, for walls and ceilings), you can assign user‑defined colors and textures to each composition.
The description of load cases, load combinations, or result combinations is often longer than fits into the drop‑down combo box "Current Load Case, Load Combination, Result Combination or Module Case" in the toolbar of RFEM or RSTAB.
In RFEM, structures can be modeled and analyzed in a spatial environment. The permanent 3D visualization helps you to better understand complex models and to represent the force flux. However, you can switch from a spatial mode to a planar sheet mode in the documentation of a calculation. To do this, you have to describe the spatial calculation of the structure with all the necessary properties on "flat" paper pages for an independent reader. Usually, you try to display the load actions and the corresponding results by using an orthogonal view of the substructure of the entire structure. Obviously, the load symbols depicted in the 3D mode in a view perpendicular to the load become unrecognizable due the missing expansion. In order to be still able to create a clear representation of all information, the corresponding adjustments are available in RFEM.
In order to use the working window area optimally for the graphical input of model data or for result evaluation, there are various options for arranging Project Navigator, the table, and the result panel.
By clicking "Options" → "Display Properties" → "Edit", you can change and save display settings for printout reports and your screen. For example, you can set individual colors for cross‑sections.
In the case of very small distances between isolines, the labels often overlap, which makes the result documentation difficult. As of RFEM version 5.06, you can select a shifted arrangement of the isoline labels in the Display Properties dialog box. By selecting the "Show values shifted" option, you can easily avoid overlapping the result values in many cases.
Sometimes, a model in the graphic window is displayed without filling the entire window, or with overly large margins after clicking the [Show Whole Model] button. To set the size of the graphic margins, click "Options" → "Display Margins and Stretch Factors". The value specifies the percentage of the margin relative to the graphic window size.
When you receive an RFEM or RSTAB file for further processing, the structures will be displayed in the program using the display settings of the last editor. If the settings do not correspond to your requirements, you can simply right‑click the empty area in Project Navigator - Display and select "Dlubal Standard". This returns the settings to the default values.