Results visualisation#

Description#

The main-level command Results is used to visualize FEA results on 2D or 3D geometries with a variety of data plotting features.

An example session screen shot is shown below, with the major command features displayed:

../../_images/results.svg

Data types#

The options presented in the first radio box below the component lists depends on what options were selected in the problem’s ***output sections. Some of the possibilities which exist are shown in the table below, with the corresponding data file and output option.

Option

File

Output type

Rendered

.node

Contour

.ctnod

*contour

Contour by Element

.ctele

*contour_by_element

Contour by Material

.ctmat

*contour_by_material

Gauss point data

.integ

*value_at_integration

Fluid vectors

.node

Fluid problems

Animations#

Zmaster animations are made in real-time, with continuous ability to rotate the mesh, etc. The option to store the animation to file is chosen using the check box on the animation dialog. On Microsoft Windows platforms the result is an AVI format file, and on Linux the result is an animated GIF file.

Note that the animation files may be very large if the main drawing window is large. The file size can be dramatically reduced by reducing the application window size before beginning the animation.

The contour max/min values are taken to be the max/min for the current view unless the user-set max/min/num steps has been set using the More.. button.

../../_images/animation.svg

Element removals#

Element removal is a new feature, where elements are not displayed if they have values of a specific variable above a given limit. This option is very useful for visualizing fractured pieces in conjunction with damage mechanics modeling.