Field Plot Modification and the Zone Style Dialog

7 - 1 Field Plot Modification and the Zone Style Dialog

Once you have loaded your data, you can modify field plot attributes using the Zone Style dialog or the context toolbar.

The context toolbar appears above the context menu when you right-click a zone in your field plot. This toolbar allows you to turn on or off the grid, contour, vector, shade, edge, and translucency layers for the selected zone(s). Additionally, you may adjust frequently-used style settings for each layer using the drop-down menu to the right of each, for example selecting a color for the grid (or choosing a variable by which to color it).

The Zone Style dialog may be opened by clicking the Zone Style button in the Plot sidebar or from the Plot menu. Initially, any zones selected in the workspace are selected in the Zone Style dialog. You may also double-click any zone in your plot to open the dialog with that zone selected.

Field plots containing transient data work slightly differently from static datasets in the Zone Style dialog. If a zone contains no data at the current time step, that entire line in the Zone Style dialog is grayed out. See Section 7 - 2 “Time Aware” for more information on working with transient datasets.

The following pages are available in the Zone Style dialog, each representing a plot layer:

• Mesh - See Chapter 8: “Mesh Layer and Edge Layer”.

• Contour - See Chapter 9: “Contour Layer”.

• Vector - See Chapter 10: “Vector Layer”.

• Scatter - See Chapter 11: “Scatter Layer”.

• Shade - See Chapter 12: “Shade Layer”.

• Edge - See Chapter 8: “Mesh Layer and Edge Layer”.

• Points - See Section 7 - 1.1 “Points”

• Surfaces - See Section 7 - 1.2 “Surfaces”.

• Volume - See Section 7 - 1.3 “Derived Volume Object Plotting”. (3D only)

• Effects - See Chapter 13: “Translucency and Lighting”.

The values in the Zone Style dialog can be modified in place. For example, some settings, such as Show Zone, are represented by checkboxes, and can simply be clicked to toggle their state. Other settings allow you to right-click to display a context menu or other method for changing them. These allow you to change the setting for multiple zones at once by selecting the desired zones (hold down Shift or Control while clicking), then right-clicking in the column for the setting you wish to change.

Each page of the Zone Style dialog is divided into three color-coded regions. The blue columns apply to the zone itself and are the same on all pages of the dialog. The green and orange columns represent primary and secondary settings specific to the corresponding plot layer.

The following attributes in the Zone Style dialog apply to the zone in general and appear on all pages of the dialog.

• Zone Number - The number of each zone.

• Zone Name - The name of each zone. Strands are indicated by an "*" after the name.

For transient data, the first zone of the strand applicable to the current time step is displayed in the Zone Name and Zone Number columns.

• Group Number - Displays the zone's group number. Double-click to change the number.

• Show Zone - By default, all zones are displayed. Turn zones or groups of zones on or off by toggling the checkboxes in this column on or off.

• Select Zones by Pattern - Enter a wildcard pattern in the Selection criteria text box and click Zones or Groups to select one or more zones based their name or group number. Selecting Zones will match the selection criteria with the Zone Name while selecting Groups will match the selection criteria with the Group Number. In wildcard patterns, most characters match themselves, but the * and ? characters have special meaning.

Character	Meaning
?	Matches any single character.
*	Matches any number of characters, including none.

• Clear - Clear the selection and the Selection criteria field.

The remaining columns in the Zone Style dialog are dependent upon the active page and are discussed in their corresponding sections.