Results post processing

CHAPTER 1
Introduction to Results Postprocessing
Default Settings. For all modes of the Results application (selecting results, target entities,
display attributes, plot options, and animation options) logical defaults have been set. In general,
when an option on a form is changed, it remains until the user modifies or resets it. On the
bottom of the Results application form is a Reset button that will restore default settings.
Pressing the Reset button only affects the particular plot type currently set.
-Apply- Reset All -Apply- Reset
In the Select Results mode of the
Results application, the Reset All button
will restore all default settings for any
particular plot type. This includes target
entities, display attributes, plot and animation
options.
In any other mode of
the Results
application, the
Reset button will only
restore that modes settings for any particular plot type.
In some instances it is possible to modify these defaults to the user’s preference. Not all default
attributes and setting can be altered by the user since certain dependencies exist on result types
and available options. However for display attributes, default setting may be altered in a
template database. This template database can then be saved and made available to all users that
wish to use the altered default attributes. See The Template Database File (template.db) (p. 47)
in the MSC.Patran Reference Manual, Part 1: Basic Functions
In order to accomplish this, the standard MSC.Patran database is pre-loaded with invisible plot
tools called MSC_Initialize. There is one for each plot type (Deformation, Fringe, Vector,
Tensor, Graph). This plot is never visible to the user but default display attributes are extracted
from these plot tools.
Toggles the form to change display attributes for all plot types.
To modify the default display attributes, you simply need to modify the MSC_Initialize plot
tool for the plot type in question. These basic steps need to be followed:
1. Open a MSC.Patran database that already has a model and results or simply create a
new database and model using Demo results (See Demo Results (p. 202).)
2. Create a plot of the type you wish to modify with the display attributes that you want.
A PCL command will be issued in the command line window of MSC.Patran. It will
also be output to a session file typically called patran.ses.01 (the version number may
vary).
3. Either edit the session file or edit the PCL command from the command line by
replacing the plot name (which will probably be blank something like default_XXX
where XXX is Fringe, Tensor, Vector, etc.) with the name MSC_Initialize. See the
example below.
4. Also edit this PCL command such that it is a modify command as opposed to a create
command.
5. Close down the current database and open a new blank database.
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