In this third and final blog post about the latest
improvements to FlowSight™, I will discuss the key features of the new Preferences Dialog
followed by the new calculation options on history data and extra menu options
for sampling volumes. Finally, I will give a brief overview of existing
and new features to demonstrate the advanced post-processing capabilities of
FlowSight.
Reducing Redundancy using the Preferences Dialog
An important part of a CFD study is post-processing the
simulations. A strong CFD software can generate high-quality data, but it needs
to be coupled with a good post-processor that will let the user easily extract
useful and compelling information from that data in an efficient manner. In this section, I will talk about reducing, or eliminating
altogether, the repetition of tasks using the Preferences Dialog in FlowSight.
The goal of the new Preferences Dialog is to allow the user
to set preferences in FlowSight so that they do not need to be reset for future
simulations. A preference can be a timeline, viewport background color, color
scale setting, text font, etc. Users have the following Preferences options:
- Load Preferences: Includes timeline preferences, geometry preference,
and iso-surface preferences.
- Legend/Color Preferences: Includes legend text font, color
and number of levels. Allows setting a preference to a particular variable.
- Image Saving Preference: Allows images to be saved in the
same format (resolution and file type) every time.
- Viewport Preference: Includes preferences for viewport background
color, border visibility, height and width.
Other preferences include Views, Mouse Actions and
Annotations. An example of a Legend/Color Preferences Dialog is shown below.
A Legend/Color Preferences Dialog box (left) and the applied
preferences to a simulation (right)
Calculations on History Data
In addition to visualization capabilities, FlowSight has
numerous ways to perform calculations on History data. The History data
calculated by the solver includes important time-dependent quantities such as
fluid volume, fill fraction and solid fraction. Also included is the output
from cooling channels, sampling volumes, history probes, flux surfaces, moving
object data, and the pressure and shear force output on the geometry components.
Users can perform mathematical calculations on the history data to extract even
more information, such as scaling, integration, derivation,
summation, multiplication, division, combination, equation specification and fast
Fourier transform. An example of the “Sum” query on cooling channels is shown
below.
Sum query of total heat flow rate from cooling channels
Extra Menu Options on Sampling Volumes
In addition to the existing sampling volume options like
Transparency, Shading, Fill pattern, etc., users now have two new features – Plot
and Display of the history queries associated with the sampling volume. Users
can plot fluid forces, moments, volume, etc. and then display them on the
FlowSight window as shown in the example below.
Example showing the options in a Sampling Volume drop down
menu (left) and the plotted query of fluid force in X-direction (right)
FlowSight Recap
In the last few posts, we have seen how FlowSight enhances
the user experience during the post-processing phase. In addition to its core
capabilities of volume rendering, CFD calculators, animated streamlines and
pathlines, 2D and 3D slicing, animated time-dependent plots and vortex core
generation, these latest improvements have taken FlowSight to another level. With
improvements to the visualization of baffles, sampling volumes, probes, open
volumes and iso-surfaces; reducing the computational burden during volume
rendering using Stencils; stitching multiple simulations into one seamless
simulation; or, simply being able to set preferences to reduce redundancy and
speed up workflows; FlowSight continues to provide increased flexibility and
ease of use.
Readers who are interested in seeing more of FlowSight and
its capabilities can go to our
website
or
contact our sales team. And, as a reminder,
FlowSight is available in all
FLOW-3D products:
FLOW-3D,
FLOW-3D Cast, and
FLOW-3D/MP for no additional cost.
Labels: flexibility, FlowSigh, flux surfaces, history probes, image saving, legend, Preferences, query, redundancy, sampling volumes, viewports
