For a clearer representation, you can select a color display of the local surface sides. This can be activated in Project Navigator - Display under "Colors According to" → "+/- z Surface sides". With the color display, you can easily check the orientation of a surface. In the lower part of the figure, you can see directly that the circular wall has a negative surface side inside.
Graphical Display of Local Z-Surface Sides
When calculating the surface reinforcement in RF-CONCRETE Surfaces, the result values for both surface sides +/- z are available. If you are unsure which side of a surface is the positive or the negative z side, you can hide the local coordinate system of each surface in the RFEM Project Navigator - Display under "Model" → "Surfaces" → "Surface Axis Systems x,y,z". In the case of complex structures, this can quickly become confusing. Displaying multiple axis systems makes it difficult to recognize the incorrect direction of a surface, for example (see the figure on the top).
Author
Mr. Meierhofer is the development leader of programs for concrete structures and is available for the customer support team in case of questions related to reinforced and prestressed concrete design.
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