good morning and thank you for logging
into our getting started with tech plot
360 webinar I'm Al include vice
president of customer development in
tech plus and I'm here with Scott Fowler
tech plus 360 product manager and Devon
Simpson technical product engineer will
be giving most of today's presentation
I'll let you read our BIOS if you're
interested but one thing to know about
all of us is that we are passionate
about engineering and helping engineers
and scientists make most of their tech
plot experience Before we jump right in
a couple of notes first of all if you
have questions that arise during this
presentation please type them in the
chat box on the right side of the screen
we'll shoot for about 30 minutes today
but even if we're not able to get to
your question during the presentation
we'll make sure to answer it afterwards
additionally this webinar is being
recorded and a link will be emailed to
you and available for viewing if you
want to watch it again or share with
colleagues finally I'm guessing that
most people who are joining us today
are familiar with techbots offer but for
those that aren't tech ba 360 is our
flagship data visualization and analysis
package we also distribute tech cloud RS
for the oil and gas industry and tech
buff focus which has a limited subset of
tech bot 360 functionality but for most
people tech bot 360 is the best product
to choose it's commonly used by
approximately 50,000 engineers and
scientists who have simulation or
experimental data that they need to
understand and share frequent use cases
would be something similar to a a fluid
engineer who has CFD data they need to
visualize or a test or PIV engineer who
has thousands of data points that they
need to analyze as well however tech pot
360 is extremely flexible and gets used
in innumerable ways with many data
loaders tech lock and load almost all
mesh based 3d data sets and virtually
any data in text files again we're not a
numerical modeling package or a CAD
package but if you need to visualize and
analyze your data tech pod 360 is an
excellent choice we'll revisit this at
the end of the webinar but if anything
you see today makes you interested in
acquiring updating or upgrading the
license or if you're used to an
additional personalized training please
contact me at Allen Kluge tech comm now
I'll hand the presentation over to Devin
we'll be showing you some of the
foundational actions in tech bot 360
including the ability to load data use
our interface explore zones and derived
objects perform extractions probes and
mapping activities as well as export
images animation and files Tech pod is
very easy to use and extremely powerful
so for new users or users who haven't
had the opportunity to use tech BOTS in
a while this should be a good
introduction or reminder thanks Devon
take us away thanks for that
introduction Allen
as with any post-processing package Teck
Puat requires data to be loaded so the
first step is going to be to load our
data once you have the data loaded to
interact with it you can simply use the
center mouse button to zoom in and out
on the plot you can also use the control
right click to rotate your data by
default the data set origin of rotation
is set to the center of the data in this
case somewhere in the center of the
cylinder
oftentimes this isn't correct so you can
use the Oh key which is a very useful
key to set the center of rotation in
this case to the back of the cylinder or
up here to the front of the cylinder
you may notice there's these orange
boxes with this data set these are text
boxes way of representing the areas of
the data set of volume data that are not
currently being displayed in this case
we've got several sections of data and
to turn those orange boxes off we're
going to come in to options and show
bounding boxes for enabled zones with
notes style that will turn them off will
show the edges to show the actual region
expense of our data set as we jump in to
learn more about our data with data set
info data set information dialog is the
home to a lot of the metadata about your
data set in this case we've got 2200 of
what tech plot call zones and these are
just legions of connected information
that represent an area of data on the
plot we also have variables here on the
left side so the coordinate variables
some vector variables and then to
exclude variables in row and E the next
area is the zone
type information and in this case we
have an ordered data set with ijk as the
dimensions of the cartesian mesh on the
right side then you've got the variable
ranges with the minimum and maximum of
both the currently selected zones and
all active zones for this variable you
can kind of step through them and see
that the variable ranges at this time
the final piece of information in this
data set info dialog is the solution
time and time strand information here
tuition time is obvious as it defines
the current time step of the of this
particular zone while time strand a
little bit less obvious but is the way a
text plot identifies a particular region
over time so for instance it's this
region is defined by the same strand 11
throughout time so that way we can have
the same style for that region as we
step through time we've seen edges of
the volume but this section up here what
we call our master switches of the data
I'll turn off edge and then hop back
into the mesh so this then has turned on
the mesh for the only in the cylinder so
I can zoom in and see the mesh there's
three different places that you can
control mesh properties the first is
this master switch which will turn on
and off mesh for every single zone that
surface that is currently being defined
I can also right-click on the zone and
turn it on and off here and then also do
basic things like color by variable or a
particular color on with the right-click
context mini the final location where I
can control mesh properties is here in
the zone style information launch
from the sidebar I can right-click on
one of these things and then on the mesh
tab I can change the mesh thickness to
something a little bit thicker endzone
style you can also control more advanced
properties for other things like
contours scatter which points are
currently be finding the other
properties for surfaces and volumes you
may also notice that only the there's
only 15 elements here instead of the
full 2000 and this is where the strand
has come in as I advance through time
you might notice that the numbers here
have updated when I'm on a new time step
that your edge and scatter also perform
the same way as mesh so I won't show
those at this time contour however is a
little more complex contour is the way
to color on unknown surface you can
control contour properties from the
contour details dialog where you have
control over which variable is currently
being defined the minima and Maxima of
the for the range I'm going to set that
to e currently you see how it updated on
the plot you can also use different
color maps with the color map options
down here you might have noticed that I
accidentally also set it to contour
group two this is a place where you can
set different variables
quickly and easily across multiple style
by default everything uses contour group
1 so you can then easily set everything
using it at the same time to a new
variable on your plot so these slices
and surfaces will all be updated at the
same time as you go through with each of
these groups so now that we've got kind
of understanding of how to tackle
surface zones and work with surface
zones the next element of
styling is working with derived objects
of the volume so these are slices
isosurfaces and stream traces which are
defined by specific points of the volume
so we'll start with slices and places
are by default using the x-axis in this
case I'm really interested in looking at
these planes
that's the perpendicular direction to my
cylinder but at this point you can see
start to see some of the vortex vortices
shedding off of the back of the cylinder
you can also use the slice plane tool to
grab and position the slice plane wave
positioning there you can animate
through time and see the warden sees
shedding off of the back of the cylinder
if this happens at any time you can
simply actually click the this drawing
interrupts it is kind of we click
something while it was in the middle of
drawing I can click the center mouse
button or the redraw button on the
sidebar we've got our slices defined and
we're looking really looking at defining
the ISIS surfaces as next I can turn
them on and we've got a few isosurfaces
but the best way to actually define the
value is actually select the probe tool
probe on a position that might be of
interest
grab this variable out of the probe
value so we're plotting by E and I'm
gonna Pat paste that into my isosurface
value here that should be a little bit
more detailed value of the vortices
being shed off of the cylinder the final
type of us drives objects and the value
is stream traces to look at those we can
the first thing to set those up you must
define the vector values so text what
you have to inform text lots of
what vector values are being used my
preferred way of defining screen traces
is using the rake tool which can be
simply kind of drawn on the plane and
plotted using things today I showed
volume ribbons first which are a way to
really see the twists and turning of our
values into the distance and but by
default volume lines are what are going
to be generated when you use this rake
tool on the surface which are simple
lines so those can be defined using this
drop down here we've got surface lines
which are just on the on a single
surface volume lines which go through
the volume then rods and ribbons which
are three-dimensional values that go
through the area so now we've kind of
got a plot of interest I can kind of
zoom into this region and then animate
through time and we can see these stream
traces isosurfaces and sliced contours
being defined as they go through time
Texas power and as a post processing
tool not only comes from the
visualization but also the advanced
analytic capability the most basic of
these is simply found under data alter
specify equations and this is a place
where we set up and create new variables
using basic equations we've got a one
that I've already inserted here that
calculate velocity magnitude with the
vector values that I have in my data set
divided by the normalized by row you
might notice that we're using the curly
brackets around each of the variables
and these define the extents of
string and the variable name of that
tech pot uses so when I hit compute here
it will confirm that data alteration was
successful and then as I come into data
set info I can see that I've got
velocity magnitude added to my data set
at this point I can use the right I can
then come in to contour detail use my
second contour group that I was talking
about earlier and set it to velocity
magnitude I can also then grab my
isosurface and then use that same
velocity magnitude as a contouring
variable on that isosurface so at this
point the isosurface is being defined by
the eave area bulls that I probed on
this side so it's still defined here but
it also is defined being colored by the
velocity magnitude that I calculated in
the in the dates alteration path adding
variables to the data set Teck Puat can
also extract and reduce the
dimensionality of your data several
commonly used analytics tools are
extractions and they become really
useful when you're comparing multiple
simulations against each other
particularly when you're looking at a
very specific metric or a specific such
as mass flow rate these can be found in
data extract and then you can extract
slices stream traces isosurfaces
and you can do all of these same things
over time today our extraction is
actually going to be a simple probe to
create time series plot and this does
what it what you might think is that I
can probe any location on the slice of
my plot so I'm going to take that as a
leading edge as my cylinder and it will
take that that probe location and go
throughout time I can then tile my
frames and you can see that
Tech one is created not a new data set
and a new frame when I did that perform
that action in this frame frames are
actually a really communal tool in tech
pot as it allows you to have two plots
next to each other and compare two
different things or have two different
views of the same data set as you click
between the frames in this case you can
see that the plot sidebar is being
updated as well as whichever frame is
being updated here so this is a this
frame sidebar is really useful if you're
using multiple frames to control the
location and which of your frames is
currently active these two frames are
also linked throughout time you can see
that this marker at the bottom is being
will move when I animate three times
I'll step all the way back to the
beginning as I come into this plot we're
actually also interested in looking at
the X&Y components of variable so I can
then come in to the mapping style dialog
which is very similar to the zone style
dialog in two in three dimensions and
I'm going to select my row you and row
the plots on the axis and then use this
tool to create a set row v on the y axis
then use ctrl s which is the method of
fitting my data to a specific plot so at
this point you can see how the row u is
being interacted with on the one side
and then Rho V with the other and how
they correspond to each other at this
point we're we've got something that we
ready for presentation quality plotting
there's several ways to do this the
first is going through the time
animation details dialog and using this
export to file button or some strip icon
on the dialog this will bring you up the
exports
dialogue which will allow you to do a
vis and peck floors and WM B's because
I've got two frames I'm gonna ensure
that I'm going to be exporting the
current work area and using
anti-aliasing which will sharpen up
those lines at this point I'm not going
to do the export because that will take
about two minutes to step through all of
the data but I will however do a basic
tangia export with the file export
dialog and just export the same
properties with work area and
anti-aliasing as well as the PNG I can
confirm that that was exported by coming
into my working folder and see that this
is the current plot that I exported
there in addition to simply saving an
exported image it's often useful to
return to the same state that you are in
with this or other data there are three
file types to support this goal the
first of which is using a tech pot
layouts which saved both the everything
in the current session as well as a link
to the data within on your disk
with taxbot la Y files or they will save
a full copy of the data with techspot
lpk files often even more useful than
layouts is actually unless used is frame
style which is available on the frame
style dialog I'm going to save the frame
style of my 3d slot and then this is a
file format that only saves the style of
the data and does of a single frame it
doesn't save any links to the data so in
this case I'm going to turn off a few
Styles associated with my data set and
then I can and rotate around and if I
come
and load that frame style it will return
my Mead back to that exact point that I
was at when I save to the frame style so
that's some of the basics of Teck Puat
360 in today's demonstration we showed
basic plot styling with mesh and contour
exploring the data via data set info and
probing and analytics of data with
creating an extraction through time and
looking at multiple frames
yeah great thanks Evan this first
question we've received from from the
questions that people gave when they
were registering was how can I use
latekka labels in plots which is a new
capability for us so like Alan said this
is a new capability it's only available
in the latest release and it's pretty
simple to use you all you would do is
use this a B button or a text tool
insert button it works quite the same
way as probing you just select a
location on the plot and launches the
text details dialog which then you will
select this latech button up in the top
area of the text details button dialog
and this latech capability uses the
latech and then installed on your
machine so you will use the same
processes that you are familiar with if
you use latech we have a video available
on our website and wait here
great thanks Evan yes it sounds like you
already have low tech install that
should be a pretty easy process
one thing I'll mention too is if you do
have questions that have come up during
this presentation please do type them in
in the chat box and then we'll keep
looking at those and share a couple more
if you're after we're done with the
questions we've already seated yeah this
is a question that we get a lot from
users but basically on how do I make a
slice is pretty particular to a
non-orthogonal surface and and we've got
a couple cool ways of doing that that
Devon will go sent on so the first way
is using the slice interactor tool which
can be brought if you're in the
arbitrary slice with the slice tool
button it gives you this arrow on the
screen which then can be interacted with
second really you can use the 3 points
dialog and probe three locations and it
will set that slice to go through those
three points although not perpendicular
it can be useful in that case and
finally you can paste the origin and
normal directly into the slice details
dialog if you have those values great so
if I know my normals already I should be
able to distend put those directly yes
another question that I get some
several times a week is all about
startup settings and defaults and can I
change default settings and different
levels and things of that nature Devon
can you focus on how we can adjust those
some of the settings can be sent on by
default some of them are data set
dependent so they cannot be set the
first example is having lighting
switched off by default because some
people say that distorts the colors of
the contours using the field layers
using the tech pot config file you can
use tech flat macro language which is
our automation language that Teck Puat
then reads in and uses anything on
startup in this text block config file
so I simply recorded turning off
lighting effect and that's what I got
when I was doing my automation recording
needed it into my config file and that
was how we went forward
however for contours it's not so easy
because it's dependent on data contours
at this point cannot be turned on by
default because of the data backing the
best way to do this is with our quick
macros if you've got further questions
contact eleanor support and they'll get
you set up with that yeah great yeah and
a couple things to mention about the
config file too is that it's seated with
many many settings so usually if you
just remove a comment it's pretty easy
to flip-flop between defaults and Devin
mentioned creating macros to do simple
tasks like adjusting contour levels is
very very easy as well great another new
capability for us has been the
introduction of our PI tech plot API and
so one of the questions that came in is
how can I use Python with depth by
three-sixty to automate data analysis
very timely questions in the newest
version of tech laws we can record and
then connect to a life 360 many seasoned
users of Teck Puat use this record macro
capability which uses our native tech
macro language we've added this record
high tech level which will seed and
create a
Python script that can be run either in
batch mode or in connect mode back into
360 we've got quite a bit of
introduction and documentation around
this so to search our website for more
information about high tech plot but
this is really cool it can get you
really started with scripting and
automation really quick now yeah and
another question here how do i integrate
matlab post-processing with tempo 360 we
don't actually have a direct capability
to interact with matlab as we do with
pipeline the best way to do this is
actually export data into a text font
readable format and then read it back
read it into text plot and vice versa
with getting data out of text block into
MATLAB we created a webinar last spring
on this exact subject so I'm going to
throw you to the tech lot writing data
with tech i/o in MATLAB webinar
presented there less yeah great that's a
great resource all right well we've got
time for a couple of questions I know
Scott Fowler has been tagging away here
while we've been talking on Blanche a
few people's questions Scott do we have
any questions that would be appropriate
to answer at this point yeah we had a
few I've answered quite a few privately
but let me just go over them because
some of them are are fairly fairly
interesting so one is how do I create
isosurfaces through a 2d p ie data and I
think really the answer here is not
isosurface so much as as contouring but
a person who has asked that question
please add more detail if I'm if I'm not
getting this quite quite right and we do
have partnerships with a couple of PIV
vendors such as vision Dan Tech Dynamics
TSI and most of those will write out
template format directly and you should
be able to import it quite easily and
and do post processing activities if
you're not with one of those vendors
your your data is usually going to be
you know structured right do you have a
you have a grid in say X Y dimensions
and you you could bring that in
you a tech lot as an IJ order data set
if you need help in that we can
certainly do that
just contact us at support or if you're
an international customer go through
your distributor support channels but we
can certainly help you with that
further if you don't have stuck bot data
format directly another question was how
can I draw a slice only need that wholly
near the cylinder so in that case of
flow around the cylinder if you want to
constrain that slice to a smaller region
the way you would do that in tech pot
today is through what we call value
blanking in in that data set you would
go through the data blanking value
blanking dialogue and you can constrain
the X&Y dimension using that and that
will effectively reduce the size of that
slice now that does reduce the number of
volume cells that you're displaying as
well so this is where those data
extractions that Devon was talking about
are useful you can then extract that
slice and then turn value blanking back
off and see a full full extent of your
of your domain another one is is it
possible to add CAD geometry to my data
sets yeah so text pot has the ability to
bring in multiple data sets into a
single frame so you could have a CAD
geometry and your simulation results
combined into a single frame we do have
a number of different readers Devon
showed you one with our sizzle data
reader which is a text box format but we
do also have formats like STL so if you
have STL now that seems to be the best
one for compatibility protect block yes
then I usually have cylindrical
coordinates can I create a surface of
revolution at a radial location so there
are a couple of there are a couple of
things here so number one is we do have
the ability to transform coordinates
this is available via our macro language
only right now and that can transform
coordinates between Cartesian and
cylindrical if you do have a radius
variable you could always define an
isosurface based on that
radius variable to get something that
looks cylindrical let's see a few more
that I haven't got to yet let's see for
those that are using Python is there any
way that I can turn on the exceptions by
default Devin you want to take that one
so the except that's a great question
except connections is the way that you
have to often to actually be listening
because Python the way that we've
architectured it it requires a socket
connection to communicate with a so that
you can use your favorite IDE or command
line script with Python so that means on
the 360 side that you actually have to
turn on listening so that you can commit
communicate through the two between the
two to do this by default you will you
can start up text plot with a macro on
the command line that includes a command
to start listening I believe that in the
Python documentation how to turn it on
and the macro command of that startup so
reference session Connect documentation
well Scott we're running out of time
here a little bit about a few minutes
over is there one the last question that
we can answer well they're there two
more and we'll do this really quickly
and if if any other questions trickle in
we'll go ahead and answer those via
email and we'll post the questions and
answers online after the webinar
another question is can I limit the
slices to go through just the volume
zones and yes the answer that's the
setting by default is to have the slices
go through all means volume zones you
can't have slices go through surface
tones that's available on the swank
details dialog and there's an entry in
there called slice through and you can
specify that there and then the final
one is I read this this case that we
showed today is transient how would I be
able to get the slow visualization for a
steady case file well as each individual
time steps think of that as a steady
state so whatever we were showing on
screen if you had a steady state
solution you feel
to get all the same visualization the
desolations option that's great yeah
well great well thanks everybody for
participating in this webinar we
appreciate your time and your interested
in tech plus again if you have questions
about purchasing a license or upgrading
an existing license they're getting
support on a license that you already
have please go ahead and shoot me an
email my emails will sit there and we
look forward to interacting with you
soon and as Scott said there are other
questions that trickle and we'll make
sure those get answered but thank you
again for your time we appreciate it