Exporting an Interactive 3D Scene to Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Viewer or VRML

You can export the contents of a scene to a .sce or VRML file from Simcenter STAR-CCM+.

You can open the .sce file in Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Viewer and work with the same three-dimensional image that you had in Simcenter STAR-CCM+. It is also possible to access this functionality through a web browser in Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Web Viewer. (For details, refer to the Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Web Viewer documentation).

The VRML file can be viewed using a suitable third-party viewer. In both cases you can interact with the image to rotate, pan, and zoom.

NoteIf you are exporting a scene that includes sweep animation, you must first activate the Precompute Steps option on the animation control node for the relevant parts. See .

Compression in Scene Export

When you choose export settings for a Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Viewer (*.sce) file, Compression is available for a reduced file size. Varying degrees of reduced detail result depending on the level of compression (lossy compression).

The options are as follows, with Lossless being the least loss of detail and High (Lossy) being the greatest:

  • None—leaves compression off.
  • Lossless—uses standard binary compression with no loss of detail.
  • Low (Lossy)
  • Medium (Lossy)
  • High (Lossy)

When you export a Viewer file with one of these lossy compression options, the resulting scene differs from the original in a number of ways:

  • Any data that is not from a surface or resampled volume is unaffected.
  • All other surfaces are simplified, with higher compression modes leading to fewer triangles. Outline edges are preserved.
  • Resampled volumes have reduced resolution, depending on the compression mode, and may appear with more block-like shapes.
  • A scalar displayer affected by the lossy compression selection that uses the Filled contour style (even when set to Automatic) has the contour style changed to Smooth Blended, with the Color Interpolation sub-node set to Banded.

You can exclude representations from compression loss using the Exclude from Decimation property of the Scenes node.

Two distinct dialogs are provided for exporting scenes and plots to these file formats. The particular dialog you see depends on the location from which you activate it:

  • From a single scene or plot object, you get a single file export dialog.
  • From the Scenes or Plots manager, you get the scene and plot selection dialog, which then leads to the file export dialog.

In both cases, you can write (append) scenes to existing files.

  1. If you want to export a single scene to a Viewer file or a VRML file:
    1. Right-click on the scene node or the scene display, and select Export to Viewer File.
    2. In the Save Viewer File dialog, you can set the Title and Description of the scene.
      NoteIf you export multiple displays at the same time as per the instructions below, the Title and Description are not available.
    3. Set Compression (for a reduced file size). You can also choose lossy compression that exports varying degrees of reduced detail in the scene in exchange for less memory consumption. See Compression in Scene Export, above.
    4. The Files of type: filter is used to select the format of the saved file. For a single file, you can choose either .sce or .wrl (VRML).
      NoteVolume-rendered data cannot be exported to VRML format. If you export a scene that contains a resampled volume part, the scene export process skips that part.
    5. Navigate to the location where you want to save the file, enter the file name in the File Name: text box, and click Save.
  2. If you want to export multiple scenes (and/or plots) to a Viewer file:
    1. Activate the export feature using either of the following techniques:
      • Right-click the Scenes and/or Plots node and select Export to Viewer File.
      • Multi-select the nodes of the particular scenes and/or plots that you wish to export, and select Export to Viewer File.
    2. In the Select Objects to Export dialog, the scenes and/or plots that you selected in the object tree can be seen in the left panel. Alternatively, if you activated the dialog by selecting the Scenes and/or Plots node, then select the specific scenes and/or plots for export now.
    3. To control the sequence in which the exported objects appear in the Viewer file, look at the list in the right panel of the dialog. Use the directional arrows to move the items up or down the list as needed.
    4. Click OK.