Scenes

The Scenes manager node allows you to visualize the geometry, mesh, and solution data that are contained in the simulation.

Displayers are the basic building blocks used to build a scene. They provide a flexible way of defining and controlling the graphics entities appearing in a scene. A displayer can display one of the following information:

Geometry
Simulation results—a scalar or a vector field

The respective information can be displayed on QuickParts Surfaces and/or on Drawables. Three different types of Drawables are available:

Section—a plane which cuts through the solution domain.
IsoSurface—a surface over which a scalar field has a constant value.
Streamlines—curves that are tangent to a selected vector field.

Optionally, you can choose to display surface or volume mesh grids. Furthermore, Scene Annotations enable you to add customized text labels to the scene display.

A pre-defined default scene—the Electronics Cooling 1 scene—visualizes the geometry of all Construction Geometries and QuickParts that you create. The following properties define the characteristics of the Default displayer within this scene:


Default Displayer
Name	Specifies the name of the displayer under which it is stored in the tree.
Display Mesh	Controls the appearance of the mesh grid. Displaying the grid lets you examine the density and cell structure of various parts of the model, and thereby make judgments about accuracy. The following options are available: No Mesh: Hides the grid except for the outlines. Surface Mesh: Shows the surface grid. Volume Mesh: Shows the volume grid.
Opacity	Specifies the transparency of the parts. The settings range from 0.0 (invisible) to 1.0 (opaque). This property allows to show an overlay of different parts of the model.

The following properties define the characteristics of a displayer:


Displayer
Name	As for Default Displayer.
Drawable Items	Specifies the items that are displayed in the displayer. You can choose from QuickPart Surfaces, Drawables, and Scene Annotations.
Display Mesh	As for Default Displayer.
Opacity	As for Default Displayer.
Displayer Mode	Controls how the selected Drawables are displayed. The following options are available: Geometry: Displays the outline and surface. Scalar: Displays a scalar field using contours. This option activates the Field Function, Color Map, and Contour Style properties. Vector: Displays glyphs that represent a specific vector field. This option activates the Field Function and Color Map properties.
Field Function	Specifies the scalar or vector field to show, such as temperature or velocity. See Field Functions. This property becomes available when you set the Displayer Mode to Scalar or Vector.
Color Map	Specifies the colors to indicate values from lowest to highest. For the list of pre-defined choices, see Pre-Defined Colormaps. This property becomes available when you set the Displayer Mode to Scalar or Vector.
Contour Style	Controls how the scalar values, represented by colors, are separated from each other. This property becomes available when you set the Displayer Mode to Scalar. The following options are available: Automatic: Automatically selects the most appropriate contour style, depending on the specified scalar function and parts. Filled: Fills each cell face of the surfaces that are displayed with the scalar value stored at the center of its corresponding cell. Scenes using this style have a stepped appearance. Smooth Filled: Displays vertex values rather than cell centroid-based values. The scalar field appears smoother when compared to the filled contour style. Smooth Filled + Lines: Adds lines to separate the colored values in the Smooth Filled style. Line: Displays isolines of the vertex-based scalar quantity that is colored with the value of the scalar. Smooth Blended: Displays vertex values, similar to the Smooth Filled option. However, it is less computationally expensive than the smooth filled option due to the technique used to blend colors across the cell surfaces.

The following action is available when you right-click the Scenes manager node:

New Scene: Creates a new scene with a displayer.

The following action is available when you right-click a particular scene:

Open: Opens the scene in the Graphics window.
New Displayer: Creates a new displayer. A separate Edit tab opens up and allows you to set the properties of the displayer.

The following specific actions are available when you right-click a particular displayer:

Toggle Visibility: Renders the selected displayer visible or invisible in the Graphics window.

Drawables

The following properties characterize the different types of Drawables:


Section
Name	Specifies the name of the section under which it is stored in the tree.
Plane Parameters	Controls the placement of the section. You can position the section either interactively in the Graphics window (see Implicit Plane Tool) or by manually setting the following properties: Origin Specifies a Cartesian position vector that defines the origin of the plane. Normal Specifies a Cartesian position vector that defines the second point through which the plane normal passes. The first point is the origin of the Laboratory Coordinate System.
Animation Settings	Controls if the section can be animated in the respective scene. Turn On Animation When activated, the section can sweep in its normal direction through the solution domain. See Animation Toolbar Reference.


IsoSurface
Name	Specifies the name of the isosurface under which it is stored in the tree.
Isosurface Field	Specifies the scalar field upon which the isosurface is based.
Mode	Controls if a single isosurface or multiple isosurfaces are created. The following options are available: Single: Creates one isosurface corresponding to a scalar value. You set a Single value. Multiple (range): Creates multiple isosurfaces corresponding to a range of equally spaced scalar values. You set the Number of Isosurfaces, that is the total number of equally spaced isosurfaces in the range, and the Multiple (range), that is the lowest and highest values in the range of isosurfaces. Multiple (arbitrary): Creates multiple isosurfaces corresponding to a set of scalar values that you specify with numeric entries. You set the Isovalues, that is a list of scalar values for the multiple isosurfaces, directly. Alternatively, you can set the number of isovalues and click Auto Generate Values to select the isovalues automatically. You can also click Query to select a scalar range automatically.
Animation Settings	Controls if the isosurface can be animated in the respective scene. Turn On Animation When activated, the isosurface can sweep through the values of the scalar field upon which the isosurface is based. See Animation Toolbar Reference.


Streamlines
Name	Specifies the name of the streamlines under which it is stored in the tree.
Streamlines Field	Specifies the vector field upon which the streamlines are based.
Integration Direction	Controls the direction of streamline integration from the seed location. Forward The integration proceeds in the forward direction (for instance with the flow if velocity is the Streamlines Field). Backward The integration proceeds in the backward direction (for instance against the flow if the velocity is the Streamlines Field). Both The integration proceeds both forward and backward from the seed location.
Snap to Part	Controls if the streamline seed points are snapped to a specific surface.
Seed Mode	Controls how the streamline seed points are clustered and defined. The following options are available: Point Seed: Uses a single point or a cloud of points as the seed. The center of the point cloud is specified by the vector components of the Seed Position with respect to the selected Coordinate System. Alternatively, you can activate the Display Tool and position the point interactively (see Using the Point Tool). The Seed Radius specifies the radius of the point cloud. It should remain at the default value of zero if you use only one point. The Number of Points specifies the resolution of the point cloud. Line Seed: Uses a line of points as the seed. You can define the line either by activating the Display Tool and drawing the line interactively (see Using the Line Tool) or by setting the end points Line Point 1 and Line Point 2 directly with respect to the selected Coordinate System. The Resolution specifies the number of evenly spaced points along the line. Part Seed: Uses an existing QuickPart Surface as the seed. The Seed Part specifies the surfaces to be used as the seed. The Part U-Resolution and Part V-Resolution specify the maximum number of points extracted from the part in the u- and v-direction, respectively. The u- and v-direction are part of the computation of an average plane that is based on the specified Seed Part. The u-direction is the vector in this plane that is most closely aligned with the global Cartesian x-axis. If the average plane is an x-y plane (perpendicular to the z-axis), u corresponds exactly to global x. If the average plane is skewed from x-y, the u-axis points toward the global x-axis. The y-axis is then the cross-product of the computed x-axis and the normal. For the x-y plane, this y-axis is exactly in the y-direction.
Animation Settings	Controls if the streamline can be animated in the respective scene. Turn On Animation When activated, the streamlines can be animated with a series of moving objects that are called tracers. Each tracer consists of a particle, or head, and a tail. Streamline tracers can move along the streamline paths. See Animation Toolbar Reference.

The following action is available when you right-click the Drawables manager node:

New > [Type]

Creates a new Drawable. The following types are available:

Section
IsoSurface
Streamlines

A separate Edit tab opens up and allows you to set the properties of the respective Drawable.

The following specific actions are available when you right-click a particular Drawable:

Hide: Hides the selected Drawable from the Graphics window. This action is useful for gaining a clear view of other objects. You can restore hidden Drawables again by using the Show action.
Show: Restores a hidden Drawable.

Scene Annotations

The following properties define a scene annotation:


Scene Annotation
Name	Specifies the name of the scene annotation under which it is stored in the tree.
Annotation Text	Specifies the text that appears in the scene display.

The following action is available when you right-click the Scene Annotation manager node:

New: Creates a new scene annotation. A separate Edit tab opens up and allows you to set the properties of the annotation.

The following actions are available when you right-click a particular scene annotation:

Hide From All Scenes: Hides the scene annotation from all scenes.
Show On All Scenes: Adds the scene annotation to all scenes.