Several display utilities and three hardcopy plotting/printing utilities exist for MSC.Fatigue graphics.

This module is the multi-channel interactive graphical editor for time series data allowing online manipulation of a signal. Tasks such as cleaning up bad data, creating data, extending a signal, spike removal, etc., are all easy and quick to carry out. This module can also operate in batch. For multi-channel edits it creates it’s own NCL macro so that operations defined for one channel can be applied to all others, without the need to do them interactively (on DOS platforms a BTP module is created). The assumption is that the other signals are from the same test or at least exhibit the same sample rate, etc.

This module displays single parameter data files. The files may contain any type of sequential data including time series, power spectra, time at level distributions, etc. Files may be displayed across four screen pages, with a maximum of eight files per page. Thus, allowing up to 32 files to be presented. Three modes are offered for displaying the files on each page. They are: separate plots, overlaid plots, and cross-plots. Separate plots are those where each file is plotted independently of the others. Overlaid plots are where all of the files are plotted using common axes. Cross-plots are where one file nominally forms the X-values against which the other files are plotted on common axes.

This module displays single channel data file. The file must be in the .dac format, which includes time histories, ASD results, ADA results, and any other results that have a constant X-axis increment. Use mTPD for pared (X-Y) data and mP3D for histogram and waterfall data.

The two parameter display module displays pared (X-Y) data files. Displays may be scaled in various ways. Functions for windowing specific fields and picking off coordinate pairs are also available. After the data has been displayed, a menu will appear. Select your options and give the name of a data file to display. The file is assumed to be in the local directory and have an extension .mdf. If you wish to access another directory or use a file with a different extension, you will need to type in a fuller file specification.

The polar display module displays pared (X-Y) data files. Displays may be scaled in various ways. Functions for windowing specific fields and picking off coordinate pairs are also available. After the data has been displayed, a menu will appear. Select your options and give the name of a data file to display. The file is assumed to be in the local directory and have an extension .pod. If you wish to access another directory or use a file with a different extension you will need to type in a fuller file specification.

This module is the histogram and waterfall display module. It accesses a standard nSoft histogram or waterfall file and provides a 3D graphical representation in the form of a tower, surface, or waterfall plot. The display can then be zoomed into, and positioning using rotation, tilt, and quadrant operations may expose hidden areas. For histogram files originating from fatigue analysis damage/cycles files may be plotted directly. In addition, mP3D will display the sum total occurrences of values along the X or Y-axis and display the result as a 2D plot. For waterfall files, 2D plots of X-slice and Y-slice may be produced.

MQPLOT is used to view or print plot (.plt) files. Up to 2000 plot files can be loaded onto MQPLOT and viewed on screen and/or printed or plotted as hard copy. A large number of output devices are supported. MQPLOT can also be used to convert plot files into different formats, for example .plt to .eps (encapsulated postscript).

MQPLOT is designed to be simple and very easy to use. MQPLOT can also set up the number of plots per page, landscape or portrait orientation, number of copies and whether the plot title should be on or off. When viewing, MQPLOT can scroll through plots by mouse or key press, alter plot titles, deselect plots, change print device and print. Plot files are produced by using the hardcopy option in any MSC.Fatigue graphics module. Unless the plot is given a specific name, then they take the form plnnnnnn.plt where nnnnnn is a number starting at PL000001.PLT. The next value of n is stored in the local environment against the keyword $NEXTPLT. A plot file has a 'plotted' status, yes or no, so that when MQPLOT selects files to view or plot the user has the choice of 'All plots' regardless of whether they have been plotted or not OR 'All unplotted' which plots all unplotted files in the local directory. The F3/pick list shows the plotted status, and has additional options for sorting alphabetically or by creation date, for displaying the plot title or creation date and for deleting plotted plots.

In viewing mode, MQPLOT has a number of options including next/previous, scrolling by time display or key press, deselection and print. In plotting mode, a plot device can be selected from the index (plotters.ind) stored locally or centrally and the setup can be customized to set the number of plots per page (maximum 8), plot title inclusion or not, landscape/portrait orientation and number of copies. When plotting (using the MGRAPHIC program), a status display can be given.

MQPLOT can be run in one of three ways:

When running in interactive mode the first screen to appear is where the plot files are named. If they are to be output to a print or plotting device, the device is also specified on this screen. The fields are used as follows.

If Display is set to Screen, some additional menu items are available for graphical manipulation. Instructions for using the graphics menu and command line interface are typical to other MSC.Fatigue graphical programs and not detailed here. The full menu system and list of command line codes are shown below.

Most of the codes are standard and therefore explained elsewhere, but two of particular interest to MQPLOT are NX and PR. Pressing NX (Next) and PR (Previous) allows the user to scroll forwards and backwards through up to 50 plots, which is just about all that MQPLOT is intended to do in view mode.

A list of MQPLOT batch keywords:

This application allows MSC.Fatigue plot files to be selected, previewed and plotted to any device supported by Windows NT. The software is unprotected and may be loaded onto many computers simultaneously. A typical application might be on a PC networked to a UNIX installation, in which case plot files, after conversion by MCONFIL to PC format, may be sent from the work station to the PC for inclusion within a document being created by a word processor.

Initially screen displays are rendered in the same colors as set within each MSC.Fatigue graphic module. Prior to printing it is advisable to select a white background from the preferences menu.

Graphic diagrams can be imported, via the Windows clipboard directly into other applications such as word processors. Better resolution can be achieved by copying to the clipboard via the meta-file format rather than a bitmap.

Text may be reproduced by means of vectors (characters drawn by means of lines), or the fonts supported by specific printers.

This is an interactive only program and can be invoked by typing WNPLOT at a system prompt of by access from the Graphical Display Utilities pulldown menu under Tools | MSC.Fatigue (for Patran) or under Tools | Fatigue Utilities (for Pre & Post).

This option copies the currently displayed plot file to the clipboard from which it can be pasted into any other suitable Windows application such as a word processor.

Or...

This option copies the currently displayed plot file to either the clipboard, or to a file, as a Windows metafile (.wmf). See More details on Bitmaps and Metafiles for details of the metafile types available.

Or...

This option copies the currently displayed plot file to either the clipboard, or to a file, as a bitmap. See More details on Bitmaps and Metafiles for details of the bitmap types available.

By default, this application reproduces graphic images in the same color scheme as the original graphic modules; which means that the background color is generally black. See 'Pen Colors Setup' folder also.

This option allows an alternative background color to be chosen. If the save settings option has been selected, then the color setting will be saved.

Settings... This reveals a form with four different folder options:

Having elected to display textual information through the use of the Windows system of fonts, this option allows specific fonts to be assigned to specific textual areas of the display. The font uses are as follows:

The Edit... button pops up the font folder that allows the font, font size, color, and style, to be set for any Font Description. The settings can be saved to a .set file (see Save Settings As).

If a .set file is loaded (see Load Settings) it can be used in future runs of WNPLOT until overridden by the default settings (see below) or by the loading of another .set file.

The Default button loads the defaults, regardless of the current settings.

The Copy all button imposes the defaults onto the current plots.

Note that if text has been rotated by the original graphic application then a True Type font must be selected if the text is to be rotated on the hardcopy also.

The palette from which pens can be assigned colors is set here. There are 16 color slots available from which pens can be assigned colors and the total number of colors from which to choose can be from 256 to 16 million (depending upon the PC’s hardware and settings).

The colors specified will affect the screen display, and most color plotters. Use the following table as a guide to pen number and function:

Clicking the edit button pops up the color palette from which colors can be selected.

Clicking the define custom colors button on the color palette pops up the windows color picker. Clicking anywhere on the spectrum of colors causes that hue to be assigned to the 16 available. Adjacent to the spectrum is a slider that controls the lightness of the hue

The Default button of the pen colors folder makes the current settings (including changes) become the new default.

Monochrome devices will not respond to color definitions although up to four colors are automatically simulated in mono by different line styles. Line thickness settings are effective in color and mono.

The thickness of the line to be drawn can be set up from this dialogue box. Note that when text is set to fonts the line thickness setting of fonts has no effect (Windows controls the font thickness), however, lines and axes are still affected.

The Clipboard Settings folder - Creating and defining graphics files.

Images can be copied as .bmp bit-maps using the current screen resolution, or in the form of Windows Meta File vector files with .wmf extension. With vector files the resolution matches itself to that of the plot device.

Bitmaps will have .bmp file extensions, and windows meta files .wmf extensions.

The default dimensions of the image to be copied to the clipboard have been set to provide a graphic which occupies about a third of a page of A4 paper, with an aspect ratio similar to the original screen image, i.e. 400 x 400 pixels. If a different size or aspect ratio are required then alternative settings can be set within this dialogue box.

Bitmap images can easily be edited in graphics editors such as Windows Paintbrush. Vector formats such as .wmf tend to be less easy to edit but their variable and usually superior resolution makes them very popular for CAD and presentation applications.

The clipboard stores the current graphic to RAM memory, or a disk file, depending upon whether Save to File is ticked. Selecting Settings leads to a Settings window for the clipboard type (bitmap or metafile).

More details on Bitmaps and Metafiles.

Save to file - When Save to File is On, clicking Copy to Clipboard causes the Save Bitmap, or metafiles save folder, to appear. Their File Type buttons allow any of the above graphics types to be the save format.

16 Colors/Monochrome

For monochrome displays, such as those found on certain lap-top computers, it is often preferable to view images in monochrome. Selecting the monochrome option will reproduce the image in monochrome on both the display and any color plotting device.

When printing to a black and white printer, e.g. most laser printers, it is advisable to set Preferences to monochrome; results tend to be clearer (black on white has the highest contrast of all) and monochrome tends to use the least toner.

If a plot was originally created with several lines differentiated in different colors, and mono is chosen then up to 4 line colors are represented by different line styles.

Text may be displayed on screen and on a hard copy by representing each letter as a series of vectors (lines) which may limit their resolution, or through the use of the Windows font system. The latter invariably provides a more satisfactory result which is generally much more compatible with the results obtained from word processors and graphics packages etc.

One possible problem area in is text rotation whereby certain Windows print drivers may rotate text in an unforeseen way. In such circumstances it will be necessary to use vector-based text.

This option sets the mode of operation of the zoom buttons.

When set to Magnify, text or plot lines remain the same absolute thickness, and thus appear progressively thicker as you zoom in.

When set to More Detail, the text and lines remain the same relative thickness, thus dense plots with many points etc. can be easier to resolve.

The function of most of the buttons is, given by their titles, self explanatory. In cases where the function is not so obvious it is explained.

File Open - pops up the select file pick list and allows one or more plots to be loaded, i.e. it has the same effect as the Open command on the File Menu. WNPLOT remembers the name of the last directory opened.

The navigation and control buttons are analogous to those found on a video recorder or audio tape player. They allow the user to page through a list of plots, jump quickly to either end or beginning of the list, and start/pause the slide show. Some navigation keys have keyboard equivalents as described in the topic Active Keyboard Keys.

Slide show Time Delay. The time delay in seconds for which plots are displayed during a slide show.

Redraw screen. Redraws the current plot, i.e. to remove any drawing marks or to put into effect a series of commands that are pending because redraw is set to off (on the options menu).

Copy to clipboard. Copies the current plot to the clipboard (see also clipboard settings on the clipboard menu).

Print. Pops up the Windows Print dialogue box.

Full Screen. Make the plot occupy the full screen. Navigation keys is still possible by using certain keyboard keys as described in the topic Active Keyboard Keys.

Zoom in by a factor of 2. Up to 4 zooms are possible. See also the Zoom settings on the preferences menu. Zoom out by a factor of 2. Up to 4 zoom-outs are possible. See also the Zoom settings on the preferences menu.

The mouse cursor becomes a drawing tool pen if it is pressed and moved when it is over the plot area.

The pen is intended only for use as a marker or presentation tool, e.g. to temporarily highlight an area of interest on the plot. None of the marks or writing drawn on the plot can be saved.

The pen is red when preferences are set to monochrome, and when set to color the pen is the reverse of the background color (which is also set in preferences).

Several control buttons have keyboard equivalents:

The minimum of information that must be set is the height and width of the bitmap. However, bitmaps can be specified in much greater detail by toggling ’Save to file’ on and then clicking the File Options button.

The bitmap options are as follows:

The RLE formats are readable by many graphics applications.

Metafiles types can be specified when the Save to folder appears after Clipboard-Copy to Clipboard has been clicked. The types are:

Settings for fonts, pens, the clipboard, and general settings, are all stored in the nplot.ini file. This is a windows file that is loaded by windows immediately before WNPLOT, and sets many of WNPLOT’s characteristics.

It is an ASCII text file that resides in the winnt directory, and it can be edited by users. Make a backup copy of nplot.ini before editing it. An example of a nplot.ini file is given below.

[GENERAL]
SaveSettingsOnExit=Yes
AutoRedraw=Yes
Colour=Yes
Fonts=Yes
Slidetime=5,
Zoom=2
workdir=c:
[CLIPBOARD_SETTINGS]
Bitmap=1
Limits=400,400
BitmapFileType=1
BitmapBits=8
[FONTS]
Font1=20,10,0,0,400,0,0,0,0,1,2,1,26,Arial
Font2=20,10,0,0,400,0,0,0,0,1,2,1,26,Arial
Font3=20,10,0,0,400,0,0,0,0,1,2,1,26,Arial
Font4=20,10,0,0,400,0,0,0,0,1,2,1,26,Arial
etc...
[PENS]
Pen1=64,128,128
Pen2=64,0,64
Pen3=0,0,0
Pen4=0,0,0
etc...
[PEN_WIDTH]
Pen1=5
Pen2=1
Pen3=1
etc....

The MSC.Fatigue system can produce graphical hardcopy on a wide range of output devices. These include pen plotters such as the wide range of HP devices, laser printer-plotters, and dot matrix printers.

Before any hardcopy can be produced, the plotters that are available on the system must first be defined.

The plotter definition system controls all aspects of defining the available plotters, and their setup (plot size, position etc.). MPLTSYS allows definitions to be created, modified deleted and listed.

The definition of a plotter includes two parts, description and setup.

The description includes the name that the plotter will be known by, a general description of the plotter its output port or file extension, and whether it is currently available for use. It is possible to have a defined plotter that is currently unavailable for some reason. If the plotter is marked as being unavailable, users will not be able to send hardcopies to it.

The setup includes details of the required plot size, position on the page, number of copies, physical connection between plotter and computer and other things.

Two types of setup are possible: central and local. The central setup for each plotter is held in a central location and is used by all users. When a definition is first added, the setup data are stored centrally automatically. The modification option allows a local setup for a plotter to be created or modified as required. The local setup is held (permanently) in the local directory. There can therefore be as many local setups for each plotter as there are local directories.

When a hardcopy output is produced, any settings found in a local setup override the corresponding settings in the central setup. Individual users may therefore have plotter setups which are modified over the standard central setup without having to modify the central setup.

Up to 16 definitions may be stored. This can be 16 different setups for a single device, a single setup for each of 16 different devices, or any mixture between these extremes. The index of defined plotters is held in the file <install_dir>\ mscfatigue_files\nssys\plotters.ind. The central setups for the defined plotters are held in the same directory in files of type .de1. Local copies may be held in the local directory under the same name as the central copy.

A schematic overview of the commands and options within the plotter definition system is shown in Figure 13‑47.

The MPLTSYS module can be started in one of the following two ways:

The main options screen displays the defined plotters in a vertical list. For each plotter its name and description are displayed. The following options are displayed:

The Modify, Delete, and L options occur on the currently highlight plotter definition.

These individual options are be described below except those that are self-explanatory.

Select the main option Add to add a plotter definition to the existing list. You must enter these three pieces of information:

Once input is complete, press the OK button to save the data. At this point the name will be checked for uniqueness. If a matching name is found an error will be displayed and the data will not be saved.

The program will then proceed through the following sections in turn:

This section allows you to rotate or invert the plots. This setup section is included only for compatibility with previous releases of the software. It is better to use the Landscape/Portrait options available in the plot control system.

You may select to have a paper feed before and/or after each plot, or no paper feed at all. If you specify no paper feed, the plot control system will prompt you to enter paper before each plot is produced.

Vector devices are those devices which can directly understand a vector command. That is, they can directly process a command to draw a line from A to B, and can process these commands in any order. Vector devices include pen plotters, some laser printer plotters and postscript type devices.

Raster devices are devices for which the vector command must be translated before it can be understood. These devices are impact printers and some laser printers. Consider a simple impact printer. In order to draw a line from the top to the bottom of a piece of paper, the device must print one dot per line moving down the sheet.

If the next command were to draw a line back to the top of the paper, the printer could not do this because it could not move the paper backwards. Instead, the graphical hardcopy driver must split the plot into a series of strips arranged vertically down the paper, and ensure that all the dots required in the plot in each strip are produced whilst the print head is on this line. This means that the plot file must be processed several times to actually produce the plot.

This document gives some help and advice on the use of pen settings within the hardcopy environment. The standard colors are: 1 - Black, 2 - Red, 3 - Green, 4 - Blue, 5 - Cyan, 6 - Yellow, 7 - Magenta, 8 - Brown

To change the pen colors, you need to create a file in the <install_dir>/mscfatigue_files/nssys directory which has the same name as your plotter name, but with an extension of .pen. For example, if you are using a plotter called deskjet, then create a file called deskjet.pen. This file, which can be created with any editor and should contain lines which specify a new pen number and the associated pen color required. Each line in the file should be in the form:

<pen number>=<color>

where the pen number is the number of the pen to change, and <color> is the new color, entered as a name. So, for example, if you wish to replace yellow with black, enter a line as follows

6=black

The color name is NOT case sensitive. Comment lines can be included in the file by having a ! as the first character in the line.

If you select vector, the toggle field shows the list of supported vector plotters (one of which must be selected).

For PostScript printers:

What do the numbers designate?

The usage of each numerical designation is shown below.

What fonts are available in my printers PostScript Cartridge?

A file called fntlst.pos should be located in the <install_dir>/mscfatigue_fiels/nssys subdirectory. If it is sent to a PS printer then it will cause it to print a list of all the fonts available in the currently loaded cartridge.

Note that when entering a font name in the User Defined column that PostScript cartridges are very case sensitive; type the name exactly as it is shown in the font list, i.e. ZapfDingbats is not the same as Zapfdingbats because the incorrect lower case 'd' would cause the whole name to be unrecognized (which would cause the default Courier font to be used instead).

Standard PostScript fonts which can be used on any PostScript device are: Courier, Courier-Oblique, Courier-Bold, Courier-BoldOblique, Times-Roman, Times-Italic, Times-Bold, Times-BoldItalic, Helvetica, Helvetica-Oblique, Helvetica-Bold, Helvetica-BoldOblique

These are available by toggling on any cell in column 1 with the space bar. Only Courier has a constant letter width, the other fonts have variable letter widths, i.e. whereby an 'm' is wider than an 'i', etc.

If you select raster, the list of the supported raster plotter types will be displayed in the toggle list, one of which must be selected.

The final set of data required in the plotter setup could be referred to as device specific data. The first is for vector devices, the second for raster. The only difference between them is the first field on the screen. For the vector device it is number of plotter units per 25.4 mm (one inch), for the raster it is a selection of plotter density.

PLOT 7.spl /DELETE

Once this final screen has been accepted, the program will return to the main options screen.

Once a plotter definition has been created, the modification option can be used to change any of the stored details. The modification option also allows a local setup for the plotter to be created and edited. On selecting modification on the main options page with the currently highlight plotter selected, a screen is presented.

Any of the four fields on this screen can be modified. Please note that in order to modify the setup data, the fourth (Modify Setup) field must be set to yes. Once this screen has been accepted and the choice to modify the setup data has been made, if you have chosen to modify the setup data, another screen appears to allow the selection of either the central or local setup. If local is selected, and a local setup file does not exist, it will be created automatically, and the contents of the central setup file will be copied to it.

There is a difference in operation between modifying a central and a local setup. With the central setup all the setup data can be edited. With the local setup, the plotter type and the plotter control parameters are not able to be edited.

Having selected central or local, the main modification control screen appears. Any of the individual groups of data can be selected. Once a group has been selected, the modification screen that appears is similar to the addition screen and all the comments noted in the addition section apply.

Note that the Postscript font settings option only appears when a PostScript device is being modified.

On selecting the listing option, a further menu screen appears. This allows the selection to list either the defined plotters (their name and description only) or the setup for the selected plotter.

One of two destinations can be selected for the listing: screen or file. Screen displays are sent directly to the screen, with the screen pausing between each successive screen of data. If the listing is sent to a file, the name of the file to which the data will be sent is needed. A default name will be displayed. By convention the file type associated with list files is .lst If the default name is not accepted it is possible to omit the file type or specify it as .lst.

If an existing file of the name specified is found, you will be asked if you want to overwrite it. If Overwrite=No, the initial selection screen will appear, otherwise the file will be overwritten and the list file will be created.

Import allows an existing plotter definition file - they always have .de1 extensions - to be imported into the current plotter table without having to define the new files characteristics, etc.

Import has only one screen whose fields are:

MNCPENS is a simple utility to allow you to change graphic colors on any plot. It is accessible through most all graphic utilities such as MQLD, MMFD, MGED, MPOD, etc. from the Preference pulldown menu. Select the Pen Setup option from this pulldown menu or invoke the program from a DOS or UNIX window with the symbol mncpens.

You can customize colors of any plot attribute such as background, curve data, grid lines, titles, text annotation, etc. You save the settings to a file in either the local working directory, your home directory, or the global installation area (if you have privileges). Once this has been set, you can select whether the local, home, or global color environment is used, or some other custom color file is selected which remains in effect until you change it. The best way to learn this program is to experiment and see what it does.