Maps of the soft (0.5–2 keV) X-ray surface brightness of the D17-a cluster for our reference model in units of counts s⁻¹ cm⁻² arcmin⁻². Each map is centred on the cluster centre and encloses a square of side 4R₂₀₀. Left panel: the gas identified as ‘bulk’ by our theoretical filtering method (99 per cent volume). Right panel: the gas identified as ‘clumps’ (1 per cent volume). The contours enclose the regions where the projected clumps signal is more than 3 times the bulk one, mimicking a S/N > 3 threshold. As a reference, the typical SPH smoothing length in the outer regions is roughly one-hundredth of the map side.