Results & diagrams

EduBeam solves the model automatically after every change (throttled to a few times per second), so results are always current. There is no Solve button. If nothing is drawn, the model is not solvable yet—see Troubleshooting.

Overlays in the viewer

Switch them on and off in the display settings panel (⚙ button, top-right of the viewer).

Overlay	Colour (default)	Notes
Deformed shape	grey	Exaggerated; scaled so the largest displacement equals Results scale pixels.
N (x) – normal force	blue	Tension positive. Constant along an element unless an axial line load acts on it.
Vz (x) – shear force	green	Linear under UDL, quadratic under trapezoidal loads, jumps at concentrated loads.
My (x) – bending moment	red	Sagging positive (tension in the bottom fibre). Labelled at both ends, at concentrated loads and at every local extreme (where V = 0).
Reactions	purple	An arrow and value for every restrained DOF.

Diagrams are drawn along the elements with their values written at the characteristic points. The label orientation and the scale of all plots can be changed in Settings.

Normal force

Shear force

Bending moment

Deformed shape

Reactions

Hover tooltips

Hovering in the viewer is the fastest way to read a value:

• Node → ux, uz, φy (displacements in the length unit, rotation in radians).
• Element → its label, cross section and material.
• Load → its components.

Results tab

The Results tab in the bottom bar has two views:

Nodal results

One row per node with Dx, Dz (length unit) and Ry (rad). Signs follow the global axes: positive Dz is downward, positive Ry is counter-clockwise on screen.

Nodal results

Element results

One row per element with the end forces in the element's local coordinate system:

Column	Meaning
X12, Z12, M12	axial force, shear force and moment acting on the element at its start node
X21, Z21, M21	the same at its end node

These are the forces the nodes exert on the element (the element stiffness matrix times its end displacements, minus the equivalent nodal loads). For a simply supported 6 m beam under 12 kN/m you get Z12 = Z21 = −36 kN: both supports push the beam upward (negative z). For a cantilever fixed at the start node with an 18 kN downward tip load: Z12 = −18, M12 = +72 kNm, Z21 = +18, M21 = 0.

Element results

Stiffness matrix

Choose Stiffness matrix from an element's popover or table row to open a floating window with the element's 6 × 6 stiffness matrix in local and global coordinates—useful for checking hand assembly in a stiffness-method course. The formulas are in the theory manual.

Precision and accuracy

• The beam element is exact for the linear Timoshenko model under nodal, uniform, trapezoidal, concentrated and temperature loads, so results do not depend on the number of elements.
• Tables show four significant digits; the internal computation is double precision.
• Deflections include shear deformation (Timoshenko). For slender members this adds a fraction of a percent compared with Euler–Bernoulli formulas; for deep or short members it can be several percent. Set the section's shear coefficient to a large value if you want to suppress it.

Reading results into a report

There is no table export; select the table text and copy it, or take a screenshot of the viewer. To hand a model to someone else, use Share model.