Visualization Tree
The figure below shows the high level items on the visualization tree. The Monitors are arranged in exactly the same manner as in the entity tree. For example, Tracer Particle Monitors are grouped under the Tracer Particle Generator Manager and all the other Monitors are grouped under the Atmospheric Condition.
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Similar to the entity tree, a small green arrow next to an item in the visualization tree indicates that you can right mouse this item and a pop up menu will appear allowing you to select an operation which can be performed on the item.
The Monitor-Quantity-Actor Hierarchy
For every Monitor in the visualization tree, there is a Quantities item. From within this item, you can choose any Quantity you want to visualize as long as you have chosen that Quantity to be monitored when you set up this monitor. For example, if you have set up the Quantity of wind velocity to be monitored by a Domain Wind Monitor, then you can choose QUANTITY_VELOCITY from the Quantities item of the Domain Wind Monitor as shown below.
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Each Quantity you choose will be added to the tree under the Monitor's Quantities item. The "Info" item of this particular Quantity stores data such as the maximum and minimum values of this Quantity. Each Quantity can be viewed by different Actors and they are grouped under the "Actors" item. As shown in the example above, we chose to view the magnitude of the wind velocity by solid contours on a plane orhtogonal to the domain's Z axis (an ortho slice whose orientation is Z and index 0).
This Monitor-Quantity-Actor hierarchy provides flexibility when investigating your simulation. For example, if you want to find out where in the Domain the pressure is 90KPa, for example, you may want to choose the Quantity QUANTITY_PRESSURE in the Domain Wind Monitor and under which you specify its Actor as IsoSurface. A surface will then be rendered on the screen and at every point on this surface, its pressure is equal to a certain value. You can change this value to 90KPa (in the Actor's properties) and the updated surface will then show you all the points in the Domain where its pressure is 90KPa.
Monitors, Quantities and Actors can be deleted from the visualization tree by right mouse clicking on the item and selecting Delete from the pop-up menu.
The Advanced Mode
At each level of this tree structure, there is an item of Snapshot. Remember that Monitor data is sampled at discrete time series. One Snapshot means the rendering of the monitor data at a single time spot in this time series. For example, if the Monitor data is sampled between 0 to 100 seconds at an interval of 1 second, it will have 100 Snapshots in total with Snapshot number 0 initially being rendered. In the regular mode of the visualization tree, you will have to go to the top of the tree and change the Snapshot number should you want to view a different Snapshot.
The visualization tree also has an advanced mode that can be invoked by clicking the "Advanced" button located in the upper-right corner of the "Data Visualization" tab. Virtualwind allows you to visualize different Monitor data independently, to view different quantities independently, and use different actors to view the quantities independently. This mode provides you with more controls across the Actors, Quantities, and Monitors (refer to the Advanced Mode section for more information). For example, to ensure that you are viewing the data of a particular Monitor at the same Snapshot across all its Quantities and Actors, you can use the SynchronizeChildren check box for this particular Monitor – however, the specified Snapshot number does not have to be the same as those used for other Monitors.