Plotting Points
To create a plot of the points (mesh points or particles):
- Click on the "plot points" icon in the tools window. A dialog
window will popup:
- Click the "filter" icon if the points are to be filtered
using the current filters. Only points that pass the filters are included
in the plot.
- Click the "anotate" icon if the points are to be anotated.
- Click on the "spheres" icon if the points are to be drawn
as spheres.
- Click on the "true size" icon if the size of the points is
to be taken from the exact value given by the selected field instead of
being scaled by the bounding box.
- Select the data set from which the points are to be drawn.
- Select a field to be used as the color of the points.
- Adjust the min/max values into which the colors are mapped, if desired.
- Select the field to be used as the size of the points.
- Adjust the min/max values into which the sizes are mapped, if desired.
- Click the "OK" icon to send the plotting request to the worker(s)
of the active project.
The figure below shows an example where the mesh points of the tail
of a tuna fish are plotted with colors according to the pressure and the
size according to absolute magnitude of the velocity. The points are rendered
as spheres, with no anotation and no "true size".
Plotting Mesh Lines
To create a plot of the mesh lines:
- Click on the "plot lines" icon in the tools window. A dialog
window will popup:
- Click on the "filter" icon if the current filters are to
be used. If the "soft filter" option is used an element pass
the filters if any of its nodes pass the filters. If the "hard filter"
option is used, an element pass the filters if all of its nodes pass the
filters. Only elements passing the filters are included in the plot.
- Select the list of elements from which the mesh lines are to be drawn.
- Click on the "OK" icon to send the plotting request to the
worker(s) of the active project.
The following figure shows two mesh line plots. The one on the left
shows the triangular grid over the tail of a tuna fish, while the one on
the right the mesh boundary lines (list of boundary edges extracted from
the original triangulation).
Note that plotting mesh lines does not perform any hidden line removal.
If the back lines are to be removed it is necessary to do a shading plot,
plot the triangles as lines and have the back face removed.
Plotting Shaded Surfaces
To create a shaded surface plot:
- Click on the "plot surface shading" icon in the tools window.
A dialog window will popup:
- Click on the "filter" icon if the current filters are to
be used. If the "soft filter" option is used an element pass
the filters if any of its nodes pass the filters. If the "hard filter"
option is used, an element pass the filters if all of its nodes pass the
filters. Only elements passing the filters are included in the plot.
- Click on the "anotate" icon if the elements are to be anotated.
- Select a list of elements to shade (only triangles and quads can be
currently shaded).
- Select a field to be used to color the element nodes. The color in
the interior of the elements are interpolated from those of the nodes.
- Adjust the min/max values into which the colors are mapped, if desired.
- Click on the "OK" icon to send the plotting request to the
worker(s) of the active project.
The following figure shows the shading of the shading of the surface
of the tail of a tuna fish according to the pressure:
Plotting Line Contours
To create a contour plot:
- Click on the "plot contours" icon in the tools window. A
dialog window will popup:
- Click on the "filter" icon if the current filters are to
be used. If the "soft filter" option is used an element pass
the filters if any of its nodes pass the filters. If the "hard filter"
option is used, an element pass the filters if all of its nodes pass the
filters. Only elements passing the filters are included in the plot.
- Type the number of desired contour in the "number" text entry
field.
- Select an element list over which the contours are going to be computed
(only triangles and quad elements can be contoured).
- Select a field to be used to color the contour lines.
- Adjust the min/max values into which the colors are mapped, if desired.
- Click on the "OK" icon to send the plotting request to the
worker(s) of the active project.
The following figure shows the contours of pressure over the tail of
a tuna fish:
Plotting Vectors
To create a vector plot:
- Click on the "plot vectors" icon in the tools window. A dialog
window will popup:
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- Click on the "filter" icon if the current filters are to
be used. Only points passing the filters are included in the plot.
- Click on the "uniform length" icon if all the vectors are
to drawn of the same size. Other wise the length of the vectors are taken
from the vector field itself.
- Select a data set from which the vectors are to be drawn.
- Select a vector field to plot the arrows from.
- Select a field to be used to color the vectors.
- Adjust the min/max values into which the colors are mapped, if desired.
- Click on the "OK" icon to send the plotting request to the
worker(s) of the active project.
The following figure shows the velocity vectors (over the tail of a
tuna fish (colored according to the absolute magnitude of the velocity):
Plotting Curves
To create an XY plot:
- Click on the "plot curves" icon in the tools window. A dialog
window will popup:
- Select the data set from which the curves are to be plotted.
- Double click on the variable to be used as the x-axis.
- Select all the variables to be plotted against the x-variable.
- Click on the "OK" icon to send the plotting request to the
worker(s) of the active project.
The following figure shows three curves:
Plotting Legends
To create a color legend:
- Click on the "plot legend" icon in the tools window. A dialog
window will popup:
- Type the title to be used for the legend.
- Move the sliders to position and resize the legend (the viewer window
is mapped into the unit square for these purposes).
- Click on the "OK" icon to send the plotting request to active
viewers.
The following figure shows a plot of a color legend:
Note that typically legends have to be edited in the viewers in order
to "link" it to the colors used in a certain object, such as
a shading or contour plot.
Plotting Text
To anotate the scene with text (useful to include titles and possible
for collaboration):
- Click on the "plot text" icon in the tools window. A dialog
window will popup:
- Type in the text entry field the text to be used in the anotation.
- Move the sliders to position the text (the viewer window is mapped
into the unit square for this purpose).
- Click on the "OK" icon to send the plotting request to active
viewers.
The following figure shows an anotation:
Plotting Traces
To create a plot of particle traces (or ribbons):
- Click on the "plot traces" icon in the tools window. A dialog
window will popup:
and at the same time a cross-hair and a grid where the traces are going
to be originated are displayed in the active viewers.
- Type the number of traces to be generated in the x and y directions
(relative to the rake) in the corresponding text entry fields.
- Type the length of the ribbons to be generated (in physical units).
- Select an element list over which the traces are to be generated (only
volume elements are considered: tetrahedra and bricks).
- Select a vector field to be used as the "velocity" field.
The ribbons are locally tangential to this field and they twist according
to the curl of this field (i.e., vorticity).
- Select a field to be used to color the ribbons.
- Adjust the min/max values into which the colors are mapped, if desired.
- Type the length of the rake in the x and y directions into the text
entry fields labeled "lx" and "ly".
- Type in the position of the rake (p), the transversal direction of
the ribbons (d) and the x and z axes in the corresponding text entry fields.
These same operations can also be performed graphically in the active viewers
by moving the cross-hair (left mouse button), rotating the rake (right
mouse button) and rotating the direction of the ribbons (middle mouse button).
- Once the initial position of the traces is thus selected, click on
the "OK" icon to send the plotting request to the worker(s) of
the active project.
The following image shows the initial position selected for the traces
and the cross hair to move the rake. In this case the ribbons are to be
computed over an F117 aircraft:
Note that the mirrors do not reflect the rake. After positioning the
rake and setting all the parameters in the "plot ribbons" dialog
window the traces are computed and rendered as ribbons, as shown in the
following figure:
