XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX''"> 3.1 Overview
Quick Plot is the default object of the Create action in the Results application and is designed to meet the needs of 80-90% of all postprocessing.
Quick Plot allows a user to quickly display a deformed plot, a scalar fringe plot, or a modal or ramped style animation. Both vector and scalar data can be animated, either separately or simultaneously. Transient animations are not supported from Quick Plot. For transient animations or more complicated postprocessing needs such as coordinate transformations or other derivations, the user will need to change the object to the specific type of plot to be created.
Quick Plot is designed to use all default settings for display attributes, target entities, and other options. By default the plot will display on everything posted in the current viewport. The display attributes for deformations, fringe plots and animations are also the default settings used under the Display Attributes forms for deformations
(p. 6) and fringes
(p. 6) plots. Animation defaults are explained later in this chapter. See
Animation Notes, 6.
The goal of Quick Plot is to give the user a quick, meaningful plot without having to worry about making sure all attributes, settings, and coordinate transformations are set properly. When fringe plots of element components are displayed using Quick Plot, the component data is oriented in a reasonable coordinate system to assure a meaningful plot whenever possible. The definitions of reasonable coordinate systems are as follows:
1. Element based result component data will be left in the coordinate system in which they were imported with the exception of two dimensional elements (plates, shells) that are oriented in an element connectivity based system. In this particular case, the component data will be transformed to the Projected Global system for fringe plot display.
2. For one dimensional (1D) and three dimensional (3D) elements, the Projected Global system is the Global system and therefore no projection is performed.
3. If data are in an Unknown coordinate system, no transformation will occur. If the Unknown system happens to be an element system, then nodal averaging may not be correct, resulting in a meaningless plot. This puts the burden on the user to ensure correctness.
4. If data are in the Global system, a user defined Local, or an analysis specific projected system, then no transformations will occur.
5. Nodal based results are not effected by any transformations.
For more detailed definition of these coordinate systems see
Coordinate Systems, 27.
Display attributes are accessible from Quick Plot for modification as explained in the next section.
No modifications can be made directly in Quick Plot for other plot options such as coordinate transformations as explained above. However you can change the Quick Plot default for two commonly used parameters. These parameters are the Coordinate Transformation and the Averaging Method. They are modified in the
settings.pcl file. See
The settings.pcl file (p. 47) in the Patran Reference Manual.
For Coordinate Transformations use the setting
pref_env_set_string( “result_quick_transform”, “Default”)
Valid values are Default, Global, CID, ProjectedCID, None, Material, ElementIJK.
To change the default Averaging Method, use the setting
pref_env_set_string( “result_quick_avg_method”, “DeriveAverage”)
Valid values are DeriveAverage, AveragDerive, Difference, Sum.