3D Viewer settings
This is a long page, use the right-side menu to navigate
Top-right viewer settings panel
This panel customizes what you want to display on the currently selected viewer. Each of the four viewers can have different view settings.
Axes
Displays the origin position (as a light blue dot in the geometry) and the direction of X,Y,Z base vectors (in the lower left corner).
Normals
Displays the normal vector of the facets, which is important to define their orientation. More info in the facet parameters page, "Sides" section
U,V vectors
Displays the facet\'s own coordinate system. Useful when defining [profiles].
Lines
Particle trajectories. Note that at each second the last 2048 lines in cache are displayed, so their position might appear randomly. You can
change the displayed number in the <<View dialog, see later.
Leaks
Visualizes particles escaping from the system, hinting at a geometry error. A dot marks the last hit's position, and then the arrow points in the direction where the particle was relaunched, and in which direction it didn't find any collisions thus left the system.
Hits
Shows the positions where hits were registered. The meaning of the colors are:
- Red: absorbed (pumped)
- Blue: desorbed (created) particles
- Green: wall reflections
- Light blue: pass through link facets (see superstructures)
- Purple: Background gas scattering or hit with moving parts
- Orange: Teleported particles
You can make the dots small or large in the <<View dialog.
Volume
Toggles filling the facets (wireframe / filled polygon modes).
You can change the volume light direction by holding the ALT key and rotating the light with (hold right mouse button and drag).
Texture
Toggles texture display on those facets where a mesh is set (see facet parameters panel)
FacetIDs
All facets in the geometry have a unique ID, starting from 1. You can visualize the IDs of the selected facets in their centerpoint.
VertexIDs
Like facets, all vertices in the geometry have a unique ID, starting from 1. You can visualize the IDs of the vertices of the selected facets with these option.
Indices
All facets have an order of their own vertices. The order defines where the U vector is pointing (from index 1 to index 2), and which direction the normal is pointing (left-hand rule). You might want to visualize these when using the Shift Vertex and Swap Normal commands.
The <<View dialog
Enables you to set additional viewer options.
Viewer-specific settings
The top groupbox (marked Viewer #1 in the screenshot) changes viewer-specific settings (each of the four viewers has different settings)
Show facet (front / back)
Has effect when Volume filling is enabled. Front side is the one where the normal is pointing to. Here you can set if you want both sides painted (default), or make one of them transparent. For example, the Front only setting can be used to see inside the geometry.
Translation step
Camera movement when using cursor keys (up/own/left/right) to navigate
Angle step
Camera rotation speed (sensitivity) when either rotating with the Right mouse button or by cursor keys
(rotation with keys: SHIFT + cursor keys)
Number of lines
Max. number of displayed lines and hits, if the Hits and/or Lines view options are enabled.
Accepted: 1-2048
Number of leaks
Max. number of displayed leaks.
Accepted: 1-2048
Show hidden edges (selected facets)
In Volume display mode, toggle whether outlines of selected facets should be displayed when hidden by the object's volume.
When enabled:
When disabled:
Show hidden vertex (if selected)
Same as for facet edges, show or hide selected vertices behind the volume. Recommended to keep on.
When enabled:
When disabled:
Show texture grid
Shows the outline of texture cells.
When Texture display is disabled (ie. colors of the texture are not painted), the mesh outlines can still be displayed with this option.
Larger dots for hits
As its name suggests, makes the hit points larger (easier to spot).
Show teleports
Visualize teleports as orange hits and lines. (Turn off if there are too many.)
Show time overlay
Shows displayed moment's time in lower right corner. Useful for recording animations in time-dependent mode.
Hide when more than N selected
Prevents a big mess on the screen and slowdown of the interface when many facets are selected.
Off:
On:
When active, a warning message is displayed in the lower left corner:
Cross section
Opens the cross-section viewer
Direction field settings
These settings are global (apply to all four viewers) and apply to the yellow arrows showing the vectorial average of incident molecular velocities. They are only shown on facets where in the advanced facet settings a texture has been set up with the Record direction vectors option checked.
Show direction
Toggle on/off the display of the yellow arrows.
Norme ratio / normalize
- If the Normalize toggle is checked, all direction vectors will have the same length
- Otherwise, their absolute length (in m/s) is multiplied by the Norme ratio to get their length in centimeters (for display). This permits to show fast/slow molecules
Example: a quick pipe with cold walls (100K) but molecules entering with room temperature (293K):
Direction vectors normalized:
Directions multiplied by norme ratio of 10, visualizing molecule cooldown towards the end of the pipe:
Center
When off, direction vectors originate from the facet surface:
When on, the center of the arrow is on the surface:
