11. Advanced: Tips & Tricks

11.1. Introduction

This section holds tips and tricks that don’t fit anywhere else, or are small enough that they don’t deserve their own tutorial.

11.2. Creating a Custom Filter

  • Open disk_out_ref.ex2.

  • Apply.

  • In the Properties tab, Set Coloring to Temp.

  • Select Clip filter.

  • Set Clip type to Scalar. (The Scalars and Values don’t matter right now)

  • Apply.

  • Select Tools → Create Custom Filter.

  • Name this filter ClipByScalar (IsoVolume).

  • Take the default inputs.

  • Take the default outputs.

  • Select the clip (in the left window), and pull down the pull down menu for Property.

  • Select Scalars.

  • Hit the blue + sign.

  • Do the same for Value and Inside Out.

  • Finish.

  • Now, delete the Clip filter in the pipeline browser.

  • Select Filters → Alphabetical → ClipByScalar (sometimes incorrectly know as an IsoVolume filter).

  • Turn Scalars to Temp

  • Enter a Value of 400.

  • Apply.

11.3. Temporal Statistics Filter

  • Open can.ex2.

  • Apply.

  • Filters → Temporal → Temporal Statistics.

  • Apply.

  • Set Coloring to ACCL_average.

  • Set Coloring to ACCL_maximum.

  • Set Coloring to DISPL_average.

  • You can now visually see average acceleration, maximum acceleration and average displacement of each cell.

  • To see the ranges of these variables over the whole mesh, look in the Information tab.

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11.4. Creating vectors from 2 or 3 scalars

  • Open can.ex2.

  • Apply.

  • Select Filters → Common → Calculator.

  • Build the vector equation using the iHat, jHat and kHat buttons on the calculator. For instance, this example will create a vector representing the acceleration in the X and Y plane.

  • Set Result Array Name to ACCL-XY.

  • Set Expression to ACCL_X*iHat+ACCL_Y*jHat.

  • Set Coloring to ACCL-XY.

11.5. Mesh quality

  • Select Sources → Alphabetical → Sphere.

  • In the Properties tab, set Theta Resolution and Phi Resolution to 50.

  • Apply.

  • Select Filters → Alphabetical → Mesh Quality. and use defaults.

  • Apply.

  • Next, we want to only look at those cells that are below some threshold of quality.

  • Filters → Common → Threshold.

  • Choose Scalars of “Quality”, and Lower Threshold of 2.3 and Upper Threshold of 10.

  • Turn visibility of Sphere1 on.

  • Set Representation → Wireframe.

  • Set Opacity to 0.5.

../../_images/Advanced_tips_and_tricks_3.png

11.6. Backface styling

It is possible to change the backface style of a wire frame object. - Open can.ex2. - Apply. - Set Coloring to ids. - Set Representation → Wireframe. - In the Properties tab, Click Advanced. - Slide down a few pages until you find Backface Styling. - Set Backface Representation → Cull Backface.

../../_images/Advanced_tips_and_tricks_5.png

11.7. Animating a static vector field

  • If you have a vector field in your data, you can animate a static dataset.

  • Our goal is to create a set of streamlines from a vector field, place points on this set of streamlines, and animate the point down the streamlines. We will also add glyphs to the streamline points.

  • Open disk_out_ref.ex2.

  • Apply.

  • Click -X.

  • Select Filters → Common → Stream tracer. (We are already streamtracing on V).

  • Set Seed Type to Point Cloud.

  • Unckeck Show sphere.

  • Set Opacity to 0.3.

  • Apply.

  • Open View → Color Map Editor.

  • Click Invert the transfer functions.

  • Select Filters → Common → Contour.

  • Contour on IntegrationTime.

  • Apply.

  • Select Filters → Common → Glyph.

  • Set Orientation Array to v.

  • Set Glyph Mode to All Points.

  • Set Scale factor to 0.5.

  • Set Coloring to v.

  • Apply.

  • In the Pipeline browser, hide Contour1, and show SteamTracer1 and Contour1.

  • View → Animation View.

  • Set Mode to Sequence.

  • Set No. Frames to 100.

  • Change the pulldown box next to the blue + to be Contour1.

  • Click the blue +.

  • Play.

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