zone.overlays

Syntax

i := zone.overlays(z)

Note

  • In the description below, the following correspondence is assumed between 3D and 2D analysis:

    • 3D volumes <-> 2D areas

Get the number of overlays available in the zone. This number is typically 1 for triangles and tetrahedrons and 2 for all other elements.

A value of 1 can occur for non-triangular/tetrahedral zones if the zone is deformed sufficiently to cause one overlay to contain a sub-zone with zero or negative volume, or if the zone was deliberately created with one overlay during the zone cmodel assign command.

A value of 0 means the zone has never had a constitutive model assigned, and therefore internal subzones have never been created.

Returns:

i - the number of overlays: 2, 1, or 0

Arguments:

z - a pointer to a zone