Customization

This chapter discusses how custom files are loaded on startup, how to manually open those files via the command line, the customizations that can be made by editing the Tecplot 360 configuration file, and customizations that can be made using the Options menu.

Custom Files loaded on Startup

On startup, Tecplot 360 will load certain configuration files. These files are editable and can be placed in different locations depending on preference. The different files types are as follows:

tecplot.add (Add-on Loading)
tecplot.cfg (Configuration Files)
tecplot.fnt (Custom Character and Symbol Definition)
tecplot.mcr (Quick Macro Panel)
tecplot_latex.mcr (LaTeX Expressions)
variable_aliases.txt (Creating and Using a Variable Alias File)

When Tecplot 360 first launches, it looks for the above tecplot* files in the following locations, in the order listed below. Tecplot* specifies any of the above filenames.

The file tecplot* specified on the command line. (See Loading custom files via the Command Line.)
The file tecplot* in the current working directory.
The file tecplot* in your home directory when using -h flag on the command to set the home directory.
The file tecplot* in the Users home directory. On Mac and Linux, the tecplot* file must be preceded by a period in the users home directory. For example, .tecplot.add.
The file tecplot* in the Tecplot 360 installation directory.

The first file found in the above search order is used; others are ignored even if they exist. To see what tecplot* files are being loaded, in 360 go to Help→About Tecplot 360 (on Mac, Tecplot 360→About Tecplot 360) and look for the files in the Runtime environment.

Loading custom files via the Command Line

You can specify a different custom file by adding an option flag in front of the custom file name to the command line when launching Tecplot 360.

The following command starts Tecplot 360 and installs the custom file specified at startup.

tec360 -flag tecplot*

Where -flag is the flag of the certain file you want to load. Refer to the table below for the correct flag to be used.

-addonfile filename

Supply a custom list of addons via the tecplot.add file.

-c cfgfile

Use cfgfile for the configuration instead of the default configuration file, tecplot.cfg.

-f fontfile

Use fontfile instead of the default font file, tecplot.fnt.

-p scriptfile

Use scriptfile like tecplot_latex.mcr instead of the default, tecplot_latex.mcr.

-qm quickpanelfile

Place the macro functions in quickpanelfile in the Quick Macro Panel, instead of using the macros from the default file, tecplot.mcr.

To see an example of any of these files, open the file in the your Tecplot 360 installation.

Configuration Files

A Tecplot 360 configuration file is a special type of macro file that Tecplot 360 reads on start up. Use customized configuration files to override any or all of Tecplot 360’s factory default settings.

You can create a configuration file from scratch using any plain text editor, or by editing a copy of an existing configuration file.

A configuration file should include only those options for which you want to override defaults.

See Custom Files loaded on Startup for information on how it is loaded.

Editing Configuration File

You are not limited to merely customizing those settings that appear in an existing configuration file. Most settings that can be modified by the $!Field, $!LineMap,or $!Interface macro commands can be changed in the configuration file directly. The $!LIMITS macro command can be used in the configuration file only.

The simplest way to do this is to create a layout or macro with the settings you want, then copy and paste the appropriate commands into your configuration file. See the Scripting Guide for complete details on macro commands.

SetValue Commands

SetValue Commands are macro commands used to specify the value of a given plot attribute. You may add SetValue commands to your tecplot.cfg file to override any of Tecplot 360’s default settings. For example, suppose you want your 2D axes to appear cyan. You can add this preference to your configuration file as follows:

Using the Tecplot 360 interface, create a 2D plot with cyan axes while either recording your steps as a macro, or else save the resulting plot as a Tecplot layout.

Edit the resulting macro or layout, scanning for the lines that set the 2D axis colors. The following example shows the commands that specify the X- and Y-axis details in a layout of a 2D plot with cyan axes:

$!TWODAXIS XDETAIL{RANGEMIN = -3}
$!TWODAXIS XDETAIL{RANGEMAX = 15}
$!TWODAXIS XDETAIL{GRIDLINES{SHOW=YES}}
$!TWODAXIS XDETAIL{AUTOGRID=NO}
$!TWODAXIS XDETAIL{GRSPACING = 5}
$!TWODAXIS XDETAIL{GRIDLINES{COLOR = CYAN}}
$!TWODAXIS YDETAIL{GRIDLINES{SHOW = YES}}
$!TWODAXIS YDETAIL{GRIDLINES{COLOR = CYAN}}

Discard everything but the lines that actually set the color:

$!TWODAXIS XDETAIL{GRIDLINES{COLOR = CYAN}}
$!TWODAXIS YDETAIL{GRIDLINES{COLOR = CYAN}}

Paste the resulting lines into your configuration file.

Plot Default Setting - FIELDMAP and LINEMAP

A single $!FIELDMAP command can be included to set plot defaults. The zone cannot be specified in the configuration file, and the command is not effective for values set dynamically by Tecplot 360, such as Mesh Color. In the example below, the default contour type is Flood, scatter symbol shape is Delta, and scatter size is 1.8.

$!FIELDMAP CONTOUR{CONTOURTYPE = FLOOD}
$!FIELDLAYERS SHOWSCATTER = YES
$!FIELDMAP SCATTER{SYMBOLSHAPE{GEOMSHAPE = DEL}}
$!FIELDMAP SCATTER{FRAMESIZE = 1.8}

In the same way as above, a single $!LINEMAP command can be added for line mapping defaults. In the example below, XY and Polar Line mappings will have a dashed line pattern, and symbols will be filled circles.

$!LINEMAP LINES{LINEPATTERN = DASHED}
$!LINEPLOTLAYERS SHOWSYMBOLS = YES
$!LINEMAP SYMBOLS{SYMBOLSHAPE{GEOMSHAPE = CIRCLE}}
$!LINEMAP SYMBOLS{FILLMODE = USELINECOLOR}

Override Automatic View→Fit

When loading a 3D plot, Tecplot 360 automatically fits the plot to the frame. To revert to the old Tecplot 360 behavior, which used a fixed zoom factor, remove the # from the following line in your tecplot.cfg file:

#$!FrameSetup Initial3DScale = 0.7

Interface Configuration

The many members of the $!INTERFACE macro help you configure Tecplot 360’s user interface and graphics drawing capabilities. Although some of these commands can be executed in any macro, the best place to put these is in the Tecplot 360 configuration file: tecplot.cfg. Below are a few examples. Refer to the Scripting Guide for a complete listing.

General Interface Configuration Options

$!INTERFACE followed by:

MOUSEACTIONS {MIDDLEBUTTON {SIMPLEDRAG=ZOOMDATA}}: Specify the action of the middle mouse button click and drag. Several other options for the middle and right mouse buttons are listed in the Scripting Guide. These commands can only be executed in the Tecplot 360 configuration file.
USESTROKEFONTSONSCREEN = (YES, NO): If set to YES, all text drawn in the work area will be drawn using Tecplot 360’s internal stroke fonts. If set to NO, the native True Type fonts will be used instead.
USESTROKEFONTSFOR3DTEXT = (YES, NO): If set to YES, all 3D text drawn in the work area will be drawn using Tecplot 360’s internal stroke fonts. 3D text consists of ASCII scatter symbols and node and cell labels when the active plot type is 3D Cartesian. For 3D text, this setting overrides the setting of USESTROKEFONTSONSCREEN. If set to NO, TrueType fonts will be used instead.

OpenGL-Specific Configuration Options

Several options are available to further tune Tecplot 360 to operate with the OpenGL capabilities of your platform. To assign values to these parameters you must use the $!INTERFACE OPENGLCONFIG command. A complete list of these options is given in the Scripting Guide.

$!INTERFACE OPENGLCONFIG followed by:

{ALLOWHWACCELERATION = (YES, NO)}: In some cases, bugs in OpenGL drivers cause problems in Tecplot 360. In these situations, Tecplot 360 will typically behave better if this options is set to NO. However, Tecplot 360 will also be slower.
{SCREENRENDERING {DOEXTRADRAWFORLASTPIXEL = (YES, NO)}}: Some OpenGL implementations use an optimization for line drawing that omits the last pixel in the line. Set this to YES to change all line drawing to force the last pixel to be drawn. This setting applies only to drawing on the screen.
{SCREENRENDERING {STIPPLEALLLINES = (ALL, CRITICAL, NONE)}}: Set to ALL to make all lines drawn using stippling. Set to CRITICAL to use stippling for stroke and user-defined fonts. Set to NONE to disable stippling. This setting applies only to drawing on the screen.
{SCREENRENDERING {MAXMULTISAMPLES = <integer>}: Specifies the number of multisamples to be used for antialiasing displayed images. The default is 4. A value of 0 may be used for faster rendering (with some roughness in the display). Higher values may be used at some cost in performance.
{IMAGERENDERING {DOEXTRADRAWFORLASTPIXEL = (YES, NO)}}: Some OpenGL implementations use an optimization for line drawing that omits the last pixel in the line. Set this to YES to change all line drawing to force the last pixel to be drawn. This setting applies only to exporting images from Tecplot 360.
{IMAGERENDERING {STIPPLEALLLINES = (ALL, CRITICAL, NONE)}}: Set to ALL to make all lines drawn using stippling. Set to CRITICAL to use stippling for stroke and user-defined fonts. Set to NONE to disable stippling. This setting applies to exporting images from Tecplot 360.
{IMAGERENDERING {MAXMULTISAMPLES = <integer>}: Specifies the number of multisamples to be used for antialiasing exported images. The default is 4.
{PRETRANSLATEDATA = (AUTO, ON, OFF)}: Applies a translation to data before sending it to OpenGL for rendering, reducing jitter when data is far from the origin but has small differences between data points. The default is AUTO, which applies the translation automatically when appropriate.

Default Temporary Directory

Tecplot 360 writes out a number of temporary files. To tell Tecplot 360 where to place these files, put the following macro command in the tecplot.cfg file

$!FILECONFIG TEMPFILEPATH = "tempfilepath"

where tempfilepath is the new path. The default path is system dependent.

Performance Dialog

Use the Rendering Settings page of the Performance dialog (accessed via the Options menu) to adjust the Plot Approximation and Graphics Cache. Use the Miscellaneous Settings page of the Performance dialog (accessed via the Options menu) to adjust Data I/O, Load On Demand, Variable Derivation, and Status Information.

Rendering Settings

The Rendering page of the Performance dialog has the following options:

Auto Redraw: When selected, Tecplot 360 will automatically redraw the plot whenever style or data changes. Some users prefer to turn this option off while changing multiple style settings, and then manually pressing Tecplot 360’s [Redraw] button on the Plot sidebar to see the full plot.

Auto-redraw can be interrupted with a mouse click or key press.

Plot Approximation

Approximate Plots for Better Speed

An approximate plot may be used when manipulating the plot to improve interactive performance. This feature is most useful on older, slower hardware and defaults to off. Approximate plots may also be used for non-active frames. The degree of detail of the approximation is controlled by the following settings:

Automatic: When the time to render (in seconds) is above the set threshold, Tecplot 360 will render the approximate plot for style, data, and interactive view changes, followed immediately by the full plot. This option provides for good interactive performance with the final plot always displayed in the full representation.
Non-Active Frames Always Approximated: When only one frame exists, this option is equivalent to automatic mode. If more than one frame exists, the active frame is set to automatic mode while the other frames are approximated.
All Frames Always Approximated: When the number of data points is above the point threshold, Tecplot 360 will render the approximate plot in any frame. To see the full representation press the Redraw button on the Plot sidebar.

Approximate Frames when Time (in seconds) to Render is Above

Use this value to determine when to automatically turn on plot approximation for all frames. All frames will be approximated when the time to render the plot (all frames) while doing interactive view changes (rotation, translation, scaling) is greater than the supplied value. This setting does not apply when using the "All Frames Always Approximated" mode.

Approximate Plot as % of Full Plot

This value controls the percentage of geometric detail represented by the approximate plot. The larger the percentage the more closely the approximation represents the original plot. However, the interactive performance is reduced. This number should be adjusted until there is a balance between good interactive performance and sufficient detail. Typically, the percentage should be set to be less than or equal to 50. If values larger than 50% are needed to provide sufficient detail, consider not using approximate plots.

Graphics Cache

Tecplot 360 uses OpenGL to render plots. OpenGL provides the ability to cache graphic instructions for rendering and can re-render the cached graphics much faster. This is particularly true for interactive manipulation of a plot. However, this performance potential comes at the cost of using more memory. If the memory need is too high, the overall performance could be less.

Use one of the following Graphics Cache modes to optimize your computer’s performance:

Cache All Graphics: When selected, Tecplot 360 assumes that there is enough memory to generate the graphics cache. If this is valid, Tecplot 360’s rendering performance will be optimal for interactive manipulation of plots.
Cache Only Lightweight Graphics Objects: Lightweight objects include approximate plots and some other minor items, but do not include full plots. This is a good setting for memory constrained problems. Consider using this option in conjunction with the "Plot Approximation" mode set to "All Frames Always Approximated".
Do Not Cache Graphics: Consider using this option when memory is very limited. If you intend to interact with the plot, also consider setting the "Plot Approximation" mode set to "All Frames Always Approximated".

In order to optimize animation, graphics caching is temporarily disabled during animations that include zones, line mappings, time, or blanking elements. Graphics caching is not altered during animations that include slices, streamtraces, or iso-surfaces.

High Quality Font Usage

Tecplot 360 supports high quality TrueType fonts and can use any TrueType font installed on your system. (See Font Folders and Fallback for more information on how fonts work with Tecplot 360.)

Tecplot 360 has three high quality font modes:

When Possible (Default setting for Windows): Tecplot 360 uses available TrueType fonts for any size text. This produces the best rendering quality; however, performance is slower for large amounts of text.
For Large Characters Only: Tecplot 360 uses the TrueType fonts for large characters only. Small characters will use Tecplot 360’s built-in stroke fonts. This is a good blend of quality and performance. However, small characters may not have the same appearance as large characters.
Never: Tecplot 360 never uses TrueType fonts.

Best Practices For Rendering Performance

The factory settings in the Performance dialog are designed for moderately-sized data and occasionally may need to be adjusted to optimize Tecplot 360’s rendering performance. For example, if you are doing a lot of interactive work with your data, you may wish to turn on Plot Approximation to make these operations more responsive. If you do not have much spare memory, you may wish to turn off the Graphics Cache, or set it to "Cache only Lightweight Graphics Objects."

The size of the data isn’t the only factor when rendering in Tecplot 360. If your plot includes slices or iso-surfaces, you may also need to adjust your plot approximation mode and graphics cache settings.

If you are using Plot Approximation, adjust the "Approximate Plot as % of Full Plot" value to give an acceptable balance between interactive performance and plot detail.

Miscellaneous Settings

The Miscellaneous page of the Performance dialog has the following functions:

Data I/O

Use Memory Mapped I/O: When toggled-on, Tecplot 360 will use system level memory mapping functions to map Tecplot 360 variables directly over block data in a binary data file or layout package file. Doing this at the system level generally provides the best available performance for loading the data.

The advantage of mapping variable data is that Tecplot 360 will only load the variable when it is needed, not when initially opening the file (but see also Load On Demand in this dialog). In addition, the mapped variable data can be shared between other Tecplot 360 sessions running on the same machine, saving memory. Memory mapped I/O is most useful when there are a large number of data points to load from a file and they are not all being used by Tecplot 360 at the same time. Only variable data that is in a binary block format (the default for .plt files generated by Tecplot 360) can be memory mapped.

Load On Demand

With load-on-demand activated, Tecplot 360 generates plots faster and using less memory by only loading data that is needed for the plot. If changes to the plot style require additional variables to be loaded, Tecplot 360 will automatically load them, and if necessary, unload variables that are no longer used. Tecplot 360’s ability to automatically load and unload variables on demand allows you to examine data that is much larger than the physical or virtual memory of your computer.

This setting does not affect reading data in Tecplot Subzone (.szplt) format, also known as SZL. SZL data is always loaded on demand, and in the smallest possible amount, which may be less than a full zone’s worth of a variable.

For large datasets, only the zones and variables currently in use will be loaded. However, for small datasets, some other zones and variables may be loaded for you (based on the Memory Threshold).

Unload Strategy

Specifies how to manage unloading variables and other load-on-demand resources.

Auto Unload: This strategy attempts to keep Tecplot 360’s memory use within the defined Min and Max Memory Thresholds. Tecplot 360 uses these values to determine when and how much it should unload. This is the best option for exploring data as Tecplot 360 only unloads if and when the memory threshold has been exceeded; if the threshold is not exceeded, data loaded on-demand remains available in memory if you need it again.
Minimize Memory Use: This strategy is used if more aggressive unloading of variables and other load-on-demand resources is required. This option is best suited for animating through a very large number of time steps, where each time step consumes a significant part of the computer’s available physical and virtual memory.
Never Unload: This strategy disables the unloading capability of load-on-demand while still preserving the ability to load variables on demand.

Most users should select either the "Auto Unload" or "Minimize Memory Use" options.

Memory Threshold (%) [Auto Unload ONLY]

When Tecplot 360 uses at least the maximum percentage of the available physical and virtual memory, it will attempt to unload variables and other load-on-demand resources until the available physical and virtual memory is at or below the specified minimum percentage.

Variable Derivation

When Tecplot 360 needs to create a nodal variable from a cell centered variable, it uses a prescribed derivation method. Tecplot 360 provides two such derivation methods: fast and accurate.

Fast (Linear): When selected, Tecplot 360 uses simple averaging to derive a nodal variable from a cell centered one.
Accurate (Laplacian): When selected, Tecplot 360 uses Laplacian interpolation to derive a nodal variable from a cell centered variable.

Status Information

Use the following controls in the Status Line region of the Performance dialog to customize what is displayed in the status line:

Show Status Line

Turn this preference on/off to control the display of status messages.

If you are remotely displaying Tecplot 360 on an X terminal, updating the status line can slow down processing. If this is the case, turn off the Show Status Line control.

Show Continuous State Messages: Turn on this control to receive context-sensitive commentary in the status line.
Show Continuous Running Coordinates: Turn on this control to display the coordinates of your mouse cursor in the status line.

Show Tool Tips

Use this option to turn tool tips on or off.

Custom Character and Symbol Definition

Generally, you will use TrueType fonts for displaying text on your screen and for printing. However, you can configure Tecplot 360 to use stroke fonts instead using the settings on the Rendering page of the Performance dialog (see High Quality Font Usage) for adding the USESTROKEFONTSONSCREEN and USESTROKEFONTSFOR3DTETXT macro commands to your configuration file (see Interface Configuration). Stroke fonts define characters to be displayed on the screen using a set of straight lines (called strokes, naturally). Stroke fonts, if enabled, are also used in exported images (however, vector printing and file formats may use TrueType or PostScript fonts).

The stroke fonts are faster to draw than TrueType fonts, which can be important if you create plots with a lot of complex text. Another advantage of the stroke fonts is that you can redefine or modify the strokes that make up the characters, as they are stored in a plain text file called tecplot.fnt, which can be modified using an editor. For information on how to load a custom font file, see Custom Files loaded on Startup.

The Font File is structured as follows:

#!FF 4
CharCellHeight
Stroke command set for Helvetica Font
Stroke command set for Greek Font
Stroke command set for Math Font
Stroke command set for User-Defined Font
Stroke command set for Times Font
Stroke command set for Times Italic Font
Stroke command set for Courier Font

The file type and version are on the first line ("FF" refers to Font File). CharCellHeight is the interline spacing (the height of a capital M plus some vertical space) in the units of a two-dimensional coordinate system used to define the stroke-font characters. The baseline of the characters is at zero. Before Tecplot 360 uses the character definitions, they are normalized by the character cell height.

Following the character cell height, there are seven sets of stroke commands, one set for each font as shown above. Each stroke command set consists of definitions for the characters in the font. Each font has a base set of 96 characters (character indices 32 to 127). Some fonts also include an extended set of characters (character indices 160 to 255). The extended characters are needed to complete the character sets for most of the common European languages.

All seven stroke command sets must be present, and each must have at least one character defined. Each stroke command set begins with the definition for a space (character index 32). After that, characters within a stroke command set may be defined in any order. If a character is not defined in the Font File, it is drawn as a blank.

Each character in a stroke command set is defined as follows:

CharIndex NumCommands CharWidth
Command1
Command2
Command3
.
.
.
CommandNumCommands

CharIndex is the character index that ranges from 32 to 127 and 160 to 255 for each font (see Character Indices in Tecplot 360 for the matching of the character index to the English, Greek, Math, and standard User-Defined font characters). NumCommands is the number of stroke commands defining the character that follows. CharWidth is the character width, which determines the spacing of the characters.

A command may be in one of the following forms:

m x y
d x y
mr dx dy
dr dx dy

Where:

A command that begins with an m is a move command.
A command that begins with a d is a draw command.
Commands mr and dr are relative move and relative draw commands.
The x and y are the absolute coordinates within the character cell.
The dx and dy are the relative coordinates with respect to the previous location (increments from the position attained by the previous command).
All coordinates are specified as integers.

Figure 1 shows an example of a character cell and the commands used to define the lowercase letter "y". The height of the character cell is 48.

Figure 1. Defining a user-defined character.

Figure 2 shows a symbol being defined. Symbols should generally be centered about (0, 0) so that they are drawn centered on the point they mark (an exception might be an arrow symbol or similar, where you want the arrow’s tip to indicate the marked point). The font file included with Tecplot 360 contains many User-Defined font stroke commands. Most of these are for creating extra plotting symbols, accessible when you use the Symbol Type "Other", enter an ASCII character, and specify the User-Defined font.

Figure 2. Defining a user-defined plotting symbol.