the following description of the preferred embodiment ( s ) is merely exemplary in nature and is in no way intended to limit the invention , its application , or uses . referring to fig1 , there is shown a conventional load frame 10 coupled to a conventional scxi chassis 12 , and a computer system 14 . the computer system 14 is also coupled to a display monitor 16 . the load frame 10 is a well known component that may be purchased from a variety of manufacturers . one such manufacturer is mts systems corporation of eden prairie , minn . the scxi chassis 12 is commercially available from national instruments corporation of austin , tex . the computer system 14 is a conventional pc that includes an internal analog - to - digital ( a / d ) board in communication with an output from the scxi chassis 12 . display 14 may be a conventional crt or lcd panel . the load frame 10 generally includes a hydraulic press 18 , a pair of parallel , tubular guide rods 20 and a load bar 22 that is movable vertically along the guide rods 20 . the load bar 22 supports an alignment fixture 24 , a load cell 26 and a fixed upper head 28 . the press 18 supports a movable lower head 30 from a cylindrical member 31 . an instrumented alignment specimen 32 is secured at its opposite ends to the upper and lower heads 28 and 30 , respectively . a linear force is applied to the alignment specimen 32 by the press 18 acting on the movable lower head 30 , in response to signals generated from the computer 14 and the scxi chassis 12 . strain information generated by the alignment specimen 32 is then fed back to the computer 14 and displayed on the monitor 16 . it is a principal advantage of the present invention that the angular and concentric misalignment forces acting on the alignment specimen 32 are displayed by a three dimensional representation of the alignment specimen that highlights the deformation it experiences when the load is applied to it . this allows the operator to much more quickly , easily and intuitively apply alignments to the alignment fixture 24 via a plurality of adjustment screws ( not shown ) on the alignment fixture 24 , such that the upper load head 28 is aligned precisely along an axial centerline of the alignment specimen 32 . with brief reference to fig2 , the alignment specimen 32 can be seen in greater detail . the alignment specimen 32 preferably includes a pair of enlarged thickness end portions 34 separated by a central portion 36 . on the central portion at a plurality of spaced apart locations are a plurality of strain gages 38 . strain gages 38 are bonded to the surface of portion 36 and coupled to a wire harness 40 , that is in turn coupled to the scxi chassis 12 . in one preferred implementation eight strain gages are bonded to the central portion 36 of the alignment specimen 32 , however , a greater or lesser plurality of strain gages could be employed depending upon the accuracy that one desires to achieve during the alignment procedure . with brief reference to fig3 , a simplified representation of the two misalignments that need to be corrected for will be described . when the upper head 28 is precisely aligned with the lower head 30 , the lower head 30 will exert an upward force precisely along the axial centerline of the alignment specimen 32 . if the upper head 28 is not perfectly perpendicular to the axial centerline , then the lower head 30 will tend to exert a force at an angle 42 , which is drawn extremely exaggerated in fig3 . this is termed “ angular ” misalignment . if the upper head 28 is concentrically misaligned with the axial centerline ( i . e ., laterally displaced from the axial centerline along axis 43 ), this will also cause the lower head 30 to exert a force that is not applied directly along the axial centerline of the alignment specimen 32 . accordingly , concentric and axial misalignments both need to be accounted for so that the lower head 30 is applying a force directly along the axial centerline of the alignment specimen 32 . when one or both of axial or concentric misalignments are present , such misalignments influence the strain readings sensed by the instrumented alignment specimen 32 . these misalignments would lead to inaccuracies in test results on an actual test specimen that is placed in the load frame 10 . referring now to fig4 and 5 , a system and method for presenting three dimensional alignment information , in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention , will be described . with initial reference to fig4 , a simplified drawing of the alignment specimen 32 is illustrated to aid in understanding the various formulas employed in connection with implementing the method of the present invention . the alignment specimen 32 ′ has a thickness designated by “ 2y ”. a first pair of strain gages 38 are located at a distance “ x 1 ” from the stationary end of the alignment specimen 32 ′. a second pair of strain gages 38 are located at a second distance “ x 2 ” from the stationary end of the alignment specimen 32 ′. since fig4 shows a simplified version of the alignment specimen 32 ′ the enlarged end portions 34 at the end of alignment specimen 32 have been omitted because of two assumptions : 1 . the majority of the enlarged portion 34 is gripped in the load frame head ( either upper head 28 or lower head 30 ), and therefore restrained from bending ; and 2 . the end portions 34 are of sufficient thickness that bending at those areas defined by the enlarged ends 34 is significantly less than bending in the central portion 36 of the alignment specimen 32 . the bending in an alignment specimen can be represented as a cantilever beam held at one end , while loads are applied to the other end . the stationary end represents the upper head of the load frame which is immoveable with respect to the frame . the load m and p applied to the other end of the specimen represent the loads applied by the lower head when the system is out of alignment . when the system is perfectly aligned m and p will both be zero and no bending will occur in the specimen . the load case presented in fig4 is a complex load case represented by the following equations : δ = px 2 ⁡ ( 3 ⁢ l - x ) + 3 ⁢ mx 2 6 ⁢ ei ( 1 ) σ = m + p ⁡ ( l - x ) ⁢ y i ( 2 ) where δ is the deflection away from zero ( in the +/− y direction ) at any position x along the length of the specimen , l is the length of the specimen , p is the load from fig4 , m is the moment from fig4 , e is the modulus of elasticity of the material the specimen is constructed of , i is the cross - sectional moment of inertia of the specimen and σ is the surface stress at point x . it must be assumed that the width , height and cross - section of the specimen is constant along the entire length l , thus the moment of inertia is a constant i for the entire specimen . the strain at four points &# 39 ; ε 1u , ε 1l , ε 2u and ε 2l as shown in fig4 can be calculated directly from the strains measured on the alignment specimen 32 ′. these strains will be normalized by the calculated average axial stress due to loading by the load frame 10 , resulting in the strains ε 1u , ε 1l , ε 2u and ε 2l representing only the surface strain due to misalignment of the upper head of the load frame . the subscript letter u will be used to arbitrarily designate one side of the specimen , and the subscript letter l the other side . using equations ( 1 ) and ( 2 ) and basic mechanics of materials relating to stress analysis , the following equations can be derived for the bending case of the alignment specimen 32 ′: δ u ⁡ ( x ) = x 2 ⁡ ( ( ɛ 1 ⁢ u - ɛ 2 ⁢ u ) ⁢ x - 3 ⁢ ( ɛ 1 ⁢ u ⁢ x 1 - ɛ 2 ⁢ u ⁢ x 2 ) ) 6 ⁢ ( x 1 - x 2 ) ⁢ y ( 3 ) m u = ei ⁡ ( l ⁡ ( ɛ 1 ⁢ u - ɛ 2 ⁢ u ) - ɛ 1 ⁢ u ⁢ x 2 + ɛ 2 ⁢ u ⁢ x 1 ) ( x 1 - x 2 ) ⁢ y ( 4 ) p u = - ei ⁡ ( ɛ 1 ⁢ u - ɛ 2 ⁢ u ) ( x 1 - x 2 ) ⁢ y ( 5 ) δ l ⁡ ( x ) = x 2 ⁡ ( ( ɛ 1 ⁢ l - ɛ 2 ⁢ l ) ⁢ x - 3 ⁢ ( ɛ 1 ⁢ l ⁢ x 1 - ɛ 2 ⁢ l ⁢ x 2 ) ) 6 ⁢ ( x 1 - x 2 ) ⁢ y ( 6 ) m l = ei ⁡ ( l ⁡ ( ɛ 1 ⁢ l - ɛ 2 ⁢ l ) - ɛ 1 ⁢ l ⁢ x 2 + ɛ 2 ⁢ l ⁢ x 1 ) ( x 1 - x 2 ) ⁢ y ( 7 ) p l = - ei ⁡ ( ɛ 1 ⁢ l - ɛ 2 ⁢ l ) ( x 1 - x 2 ) ⁢ y ( 8 ) because the alignment specimen is assumed to be symmetrical across the loading axis , the values of δ l and δ u will be exactly opposite , while m l and m u , and p l and p u will be identical , within the error introduced to the system from the error in measurement in the strain gages 38 . equations ( 3 ) and ( 6 ) are used directly to create the three - dimensional display because they represent the deflection of the alignment specimen 32 away from the load axis . three matrices are constructed such that they define a three dimensional surface and two dimensional projections of this surface . this surface , when graphed using a parametric plot , shows a three - dimensional representation of the specimen , including any bending that occurs due to sensed mis - alignment at those locations where the strain gages 38 are located . the projections of the surface help to emphasize the misalignment of the end user . the matrices are expressed as follows : x ( 1 , x )= s *( δ l ( x )+ y ) x ( 2 , x )= s *( δ u ( x )− y ) x ( 3 , x )= s *( δ u ( x )− y ) x ( 4 , x )= s *( δ l ( x )+ y ) the term “ x ” is the parametric x - axis positions , “ y ” is the parametric y - axis positions and “ z ” is the parametric z - axis positions for all numbers x . the term “ s ” is a user selectable scale factor which modifies the visualization of the deflection to create a more pronounced ( i . e ., exaggerated ) deflection effect for the user . the projections are made by setting each value of a given axis to zero . for example , for a x - z projection , x would all be zeros . for a y - z projection , y would be all zeros , and for a x - y projection z would be all zeros . as the strains measured from the specimen change , the values of δ l ( x ) and δ u ( x ) change , thus changing the parametric plot to represent the current bending condition . with reference to fig5 , the operation of one preferred implementation of the method will be outlined . in operation 46 , strain information is obtained at a plurality of locations on the alignment specimen 32 ′, as provided by the strain gages 38 . in operation 48 , the strains are normalized to obtain only surface strain information at a designated plurality of points on opposing surfaces of the alignment specimen 32 ′. in operation 50 , the normalized strains are used to obtain deflection values at the designated plurality of points on the alignment specimen 32 ′. in operation 52 a , the deflection values obtained in operation 50 are then used to obtain x , y and z axis deflection values for each of the designated points along the alignment specimen 32 . at operation 54 b , a scale factor ( e . g ., 5 , 10 , 100 , etc .) is applied to the deflector values . this provides a three dimensional representation of the deflection of the alignment specimen at each of the given designated points that is slightly exaggerated to enable an operator to more readily visualize the deformation affecting the alignment specimen . in operation 54 , x , y and z axis deflection values for each of the designated points that were determined in operation 52 b are used in plotting a three dimensional visual representation of the alignment specimen on a display , such as monitor 16 ( fig1 ). the three dimensional display of the alignment specimen includes a slightly exaggerated representation of the deformation of its shape caused by the misalignment forces . being able to readily see a deformed representation of the alignment specimen 32 enables an operator to more quickly , easily and more intuitively apply adjustments to the adjustment screws on the alignment fixture 24 of the load frame 10 . a representation of the deformation of the alignment specimen 32 is illustrated in fig6 . fig6 also illustrates a two dimensional projection 32 a in a z - y plane 56 and , a two dimensional projection 32 b in a z - x plane 58 . projection 32 a represents the deformation obtained by setting the x - axis deformation values in the foregoing formulas to zero . projection 32 b represents the deformation obtained by setting the y - axis deformation values to zero . optionally , an additional three dimensional projection 60 could be provided to illustrate the relative lateral displacements of various portions of the alignment specimen 32 in only the x - y plane . in this example , circle 62 corresponds to portion 62 a on the specimen 32 , circle 64 corresponds to portion 64 b on the specimen 32 , circle 66 corresponds to portion 66 a on the specimen 32 , circle 68 corresponds to portion 68 a on the specimen , and circle 70 corresponds to portion 70 a on the specimen 70 . the system and method of the present invention thus allows an operator to more easily adjust the components of a typical load frame to remove any concentric and / or angular misalignment of the upper head relative to the lower head . by providing a three dimensional display of the alignment specimen with a slightly exaggerated representation of the deformation of the specimen , the operator can more easily and intuitively apply the needed corrections to the load frame even more quickly than with previously developed two dimensional graphical alignment systems . since the three dimensional display is provided essentially in real time , this further expedites the process of aligning the components of the load frame . while various preferred embodiments have been described , those skilled in the art will recognize modifications or variations which might be made without departing from the inventive concept . the examples illustrate the invention and are not intended to limit it . therefore , the description and claims should be interpreted liberally with only such limitation as is necessary in view of the pertinent prior art .