Displaying Vectors

Vectors show the direction and magnitude of variables on a volume. Vector results display either vector variables, geometry direction or legend magnitude, on a collection of seed points defined on a volume.

  1. In the Results arc, click Vectors.

    You can display the following vectors based on the physics in your simulation:

    • For structural simulations, display Displacement, Reaction Force, or Reaction Resultant.
    • For thermal simulations, display Heat Flux.
    • For thermal-structural simulations, display Displacement, Reaction Force, Reaction Resultant, or Heat Flux.
    • For fluid flow simulations, display Velocity. You can also display curved vectors to visualize the fluid recirculation.
  2. Select a variable from the Results legend list to color your vector results by a different variable.
    For example, for a fluid flow simulation, you can display Velocity vectors and have them colored by Temperature (if that is the variable you selected from the list in the legend).
  3. Analyze and display your results in different ways.

    For fluid flow simulations, the following options are available:

    Curved Selected by default for fluid flow simulations to display curved vectors. Curved vectors provide a way to visualize the global field flow characteristics, and explore the flow by velocity or circulation.
    Thickness Controls the width of the vector.
    Tail length Trims away some of the history of where vectors have been.
    Count Increases or decreases the number of vectors displayed.
    Filter by Displays values based on either Magnitude (value of) or Gradient (rate of change). Use the slider to change the maximum and minimum threshold of curved vectors to be displayed.
    Invert range Flips the maximum and minimum thresholds.
    Reset Resets the vector to its original range.

    For all other physics types, the following options are available:

    Number Controls the number of displayed arrows.
    Arrow size Controls the size of the displayed arrows.
    Constant size Sizes all arrows equally. If constant size is not checked (the default), the arrow size is based on the magnitude of the variable at that point.