You can create many types of graphics displays: geometry displays (nodes, elements, keypoints, etc.), results displays (temperature or stress contours, etc.), and graphs (stress-strain curves, time-history displays, etc.). Creating any display is a two-step process:
You use graphics specification functions to establish specifications (such as the viewing direction, number and color controls, etc.) for your display.
You use graphics action functions to actually produce the display.
You can perform both types of graphics functions either via GUI menu functions or by entering commands.
When running the program interactively, and depending on the type of analysis being performed, you may prefer to use the GUI. The GUI functions execute commands without your seeing or editing them. (The program records all underlying executed commands in your Jobname.log file.) You can access graphics-specification functions via . Graphics action functions reside under .
As an alternative to using the GUI functions, you can type commands directly in the Input Window. In general, you enter the graphics specifications using the graphics "slash" commands (for example, /WINDOW, /PNUM, etc.). Graphics-action commands are typically prefixed with PL (PLNSOL, PLVAR, etc.) or suffixed with PLOT (EPLOT, KPLOT, etc.).
By default in the GUI, your model is displayed immediately as you create new entities (such as areas, keypoints, nodes, elements, local coordinate systems, boundary conditions, etc.). This behavior is called immediate mode graphics. Anything drawn immediately in this way, however, is destroyed if you bring up a menu or dialog box on top of it. Or, if you iconify the GUI, the immediate mode graphics image is not displayed when you restore the GUI.
An immediate image is also automatically scaled to fit nicely within the Graphics Window--a feature called automatic scaling. Periodically, however, you may need to issue an explicit plot function because you have created new entities which lie "outside" the boundaries of the scaled image already in the Graphics Window and are therefore not captured with immediate mode graphics. The plot function will rescale and redraw the image.
To obtain a more "permanent" image, you need to execute one of the plot functions (such as ) or a graphics action command (such as VPLOT). An image generated in this way will not be destroyed by menu pop-ups or by iconifying the GUI. Also note that symbols (such as keypoint or node numbers, local coordinate systems, boundary conditions, etc.) are also shown immediately but will not be present on a permanent display unless you first activate the appropriate symbol using the functions under or the appropriate graphics specification command.
If you prefer not to see things immediately as you define them, issue the IMMED command to disable immediate mode. When you run the program interactively without via the GUI, immediate mode is off by default.
The /REPLOT command re-executes the last display action command that was executed. However, the program can execute that command only if it is valid in the current routine. For instance, if you issue a PLNSOL command in POST1, then exit that routine and replot while at the Begin level, no contour display will be formed. To save time, you may want to define an abbreviation for the /REPLOT command so that it is available on the Toolbar as a "quick pick."
You can clear the current graphics display via the ERASE command. (GUI menus are not erased, however.)
If you have initiated a display and decide to terminate it before it is completed, invoke your system "break." (Typically, this means moving the mouse pointer to the Output Window and typing Ctrl+C. However, the specific procedure varies from system to system.) You must execute this break while the display is visibly in progress; otherwise, your entire session terminates.