Glossary

2D

Plotting in two dimensions. Line plots of one or more variables (XY and Polar Line plots) are not considered.

2D Cartesian Plot

A plot displaying a 2D scattering of points, surfaces, or volumes using two orthogonal axes.

3D

Plotting in three dimensions. Three-dimensional plotting can be subdivided into 3D surface and 3D volume.

3D Cartesian Plot

A plot displaying a 3D scattering of points, surfaces, or volumes using three orthogonal axes.

3D Sorting

The process that Tecplot 360 uses to determine which surface to plot first. In this process, the cells are sorted relative to the viewer and plotted beginning with the farthest point away and ending with the closest. Sorting is used when printing 3D plots or rendering translucent 3D objects on the screen.

3D Surface

Three-dimensional plotting confined to a surface. For example, the surface of a wing.

3D Volume

Three-dimensional plotting of data that includes interior data points of a volume, as well as those on the surface. For example, the vector field around a wing.

Active Zone

A zone that is displayed in the active plot, as determined in the Zone Style dialog.

Add-on

Any component or program which provides additional functions to Tecplot 360.

ADK

Add-on Developer’s Kit designed to create add-ons for use with Tecplot 360.

Anchor point

The fixed point of an object on the plot.

Antialiasing

The process of removing or reducing the jagged distortions in curves and diagonal lines.

ASCII Data File

A data file composed of code in a human-readable and editable format, using the ASCII character set encoding.

Aspect Ratio

The ratio of lengths of the sides of an object. In the 3D Cartesian plot type, the ratio is that of the longest side to the shortest side.

Auxiliary Data

Metadata attached to zones, datasets, and frames.

Banded Contour Flooding

A field plot where the region between contour lines is filled with a constant color that corresponds to each variable.

Bars Mapping Layer

Mapping Layer (XY line plots only) where bars are used to depict the relationship between the dependent and independent variables.

Binary Data File

A data file composed of machine-readable data. This type of file is created by converting ASCII data files with Preplot, or by directly creating them from an application.

Blanking

A feature of Tecplot 360 that excludes certain cells and points from a plot.

Block

A data file format in which the data is listed by variable. All the point values of the first variable are listed first, then all the point values of the second variable, and so forth.

Boundary Cell Faces

A set of un-blanked cell faces in a 3D volume zone which have only one neighboring volume cell. In contrast, interior cell faces have two neighboring volume cells, one on either side, which share the face. For an IJK-ordered zone the boundary cell faces are on the exterior of the zone. That is, the first and last I-planes, the first and last J-planes, and the first and last K-planes. For a finite element 3D volume zone, boundary cell faces are on the exterior of the zone and the surface of any voids within the zone.

Bounding Box of Data

The smallest rectangular box, aligned with the coordinate axes, which completely encloses all data points.

Brick

An element type of finite element volume data composed of eight node points arranged in a hexahedron-like format. This element type is used in 3D volume plotting.

Carpet Plot

A 3D surface plot where a variable is plotted in the third dimension and is singular-valued with respect to the independent variables.

Cartesian Plot

A 2D or 3D plot of some variable by location on a single plane using two axes (or in a volume using three axes).

Cell

Either an element of finite element data, or the space contained by one increment of each index of IJK or IJK-ordered data.

Cell-centered Values

Values located at the center of the cell (assumed to be the centroid).

Code Generator

Add-on that generates style value code for any style changes made in the Tecplot 360 user interface.

Coordinate

Any of a set of numbers used in specifying the location of a point on a plot.

Configuration File

File (tecplot.cfg) containing Tecplot 360 defaults. See Configuration Files.

Color Map

A color spectrum used to plot contour flooding and multi-colored objects.

Connectivity List

The portion of a finite element data file which defines the elements or cells by listing the relationships between points. The number of points per cell is determined by the element type.

Continuous Contour Flooding

A field plot where a color is assigned to each point in a mesh, based upon the contour variable and the color map. Each face is filled with colors interpolated between the corner nodes. This results in a smooth variation of color over the surface.

Contour

A field plot type that plots iso-valued lines, or color flooding based on the values of a specified variable.

Curve Type

The function used to fit the data points in an XY-plot.

Custom Labels

Text strings contained within a data file or text geometry file which define labels for your axes or contour table. You may select Custom Labels anywhere you can choose a number format, the result is the text strings in place of numbers.

Cutaway Plot

A 3D volume plot where a portion of a 3D volume zone is cut-away by blanking to reveal the interior.

Cutting Plane

A planar surface used to slice 3D volume or surface zones.

Data File

A file that contains data used for plotting in Tecplot 360.

Data Format

The type of zone data as specified by the format parameter in a Tecplot data file, such as BLOCK or POINT.

Data Loader

A Tecplot 360 add-on which allows you to read non-Tecplot data files.

Data Point

An XYZ-point at which field variables are defined.

Data Smoothing

A process that shifts the value of a variable at a data point towards an average of the values at its neighboring data points to reduce "noise" and lessen discontinuities in data.

Dataset

A set of one or more zones. A dataset may be plotted in one or more frames. However, a single frame may only plot one dataset. A dataset may be created by loading one or more data files.

Dependent

An axis mode requiring the axes to maintain a fixed ratio to one another.

Depth

For image export, the number of bits stored per pixel.

Depth Blanking

A blanking option which excludes cells in a 3D plot, based upon their depth into the image. Cells closer than a plane of a certain depth, as well as cells further than a plane of another depth, may be blanked.

Derived Volume Objects

Graphic objects which are visible in the plot and created from zone data, but are not zones, i.e. an Iso-Surface, a Slice, or a Streamtrace.

Display List

A group of OpenGL commands that have been stored for subsequent execution. Using a display list can, depending upon the hardware involved, dramatically speed up graphics rendering. Using display lists also requires more memory.

Draw Level

A draw behavior setting for modifying the image quality and rendering speed during various operations, such as rotation. Options vary from Trace (a simplified wire-frame mesh which is rendered quickly) to Full.

Dynamic Text

Special placeholders added to text that change with the data or the display environment.

Edge

A 2D or 3D field plot option. Plotting the edge of a zone plots the connection of all outer lines (IJ-ordered zones), finite element surface zones, or planes (IJK-ordered zones).

Element Type

The form of individual elements in a finite element zone. There are four types of cell-based finite element zones: Triangle and Quadrilateral (finite element surface types), and Tetrahedron and Brick (finite element volume types). For cell-based finite elements, the element type of a zone determines the number of nodes per element and their orientation within an element. There are two types of face-based finite element zones: polygonal (2D) and polyhedral (3D). For face-based elements, the number of nodes per element is variable.

Error Bars Mapping Layer

XY Line mapping layer where a second dependent variable (error) is used to show the accuracy of the first dependent variable, typically used in conjunction with the Bars Mapping Layer.

Exposed Cell Faces

The set of those cell faces in 3D volume zones that have only one un-blanked neighboring volume cell. By comparison, interior cell faces have two neighboring cells, one on either side, which share the face. The exposed cell faces include boundary cell faces and interior cell faces exposed by blanking. (One of the neighboring cells has been blanked.)

Extended Curve-fit

A Tecplot 360 add-on which extends Tecplot 360’s XY-plot curve-fitting capabilities.

Eye Coordinate System

Coordinate system aligned with the Grid coordinate system so that objects that are drawn move with the data as you zoom and translate, but remain fixed when you rotate the plot.

Extra 3D Sorting

Perform extra work to resolve hidden surface problems encountered during 3D sorting.

Face Neighbor

A neighboring cell whose faces share all nodes in common with the selected cell.

FE

An abbreviation for finite element (a common means of arranging data for calculations, often referred to as "unordered" or "unstructured").

FEA

An abbreviation for finite element analysis. See FEA Loader for information and supported formats.

Fence Plot

A plot of planes of a 3D data field.

FE Surface

A finite element zone of the element type Triangle or Quadrilateral, or Polygon . These zones are used for 2D and 3D surface plots.

FE Volume

A finite element zone of the element type Tetrahedron or Brick, or Polyhedron . These zones are used for 3D volume plots.

Field Map

A collection of zones for 2D and 3D field plots. A common style can be easily applied to all zones in the selection.

Field Plot

Includes 2D Cartesian and 3D Cartesian plot types. Generally used to display the spacial relationship of data. Mesh, Contour, Vector, Scatter, and Shade are all considered field plots. XY and Polar Line plots and the Sketch plot type are not field plots.

File Path

A way to specify the directory for Tecplot 360 to locate a given file. For instance, a linked layout saved with an absolute file path contains the complete directory structure to load the associated file starting with the root directory or (on Windows) the drive letter.

Finite Element

A type of data point ordering. Data is arranged by listing the data points (called nodes), and then listing their relationships (called elements). The element type of the zone determines the number of nodes which are contained in each element, as well as the exact relationship of nodes within an element. There are six different element types supported by Tecplot 360: Triangle, Quadrilateral, Brick, Polygonal, and Polyhedral. See also Connectivity List and node].

Font Modifier

The modifier used to embed Greek, Math, or User-Defined characters in a text string.

Frame

Area within the workspace where sketches and plots are created. The workspace shows a page at a time, and each page can contain multiple frames.

Frame Coordinate System

Coordinate system fixed to the frame that does not change when the plot is zoomed, translated, or rotated.

Gouraud Shading

Shading used to achieve smooth lighting on low-polygon surfaces by linearly interpolating a color or shade across a polygon.

Grid Area

One or more rectangular regions defined and bounded by the grid axes.

Grid Axes

An axis option which displays the coordinates of the grid along the various spatial dimensions.

Grid Coordinate System

The grid coordinate system consists of two dimensional physical coordinates that are aligned with the coordinate system used by the plot axes.

Gridline

A set of lines drawn from one or more axes that extend from the tick marks on an axis across the grid area.

Grid Point

In 2D, the intersection of gridlines.

Hidden Line

Mesh type where mesh lines that appear behind other plot layers are not drawn.

I-Ordered

A type of data point ordering where each point is listed one at a time (that is, by one index). Used mainly in XY plots. In 2D or 3D, this type of data point ordering is sometimes called irregular, and is only useful for scatter plots, or for interpolating or triangulating into 2D, 3D surface, or 3D volume zones. (This type of data can also be used for 2D or 3D vector plots if streamtraces are not required.)

IJ-Ordered

A type of data point ordering where the points are arranged in an array used for 2D and 3D surface plotting.

IJK-Blanking

A feature to include or exclude portions of an IJK-ordered zone based on index ranges.

IJK-Ordered

A type of data ordering where the points are arranged in a 3D array. Used for 3D volume plotting as well as 2D and 3D surface plotting.

Image Format

Any of the raster or bit-mapped graphic formats supported by Tecplot 360.

Inactive Zone

A zone loaded into Tecplot 360 which does not appear in the plot. A zone can be deactivated using the Zone Show option on any page of the Zone Style dialog.

Independent

Axis mode allowing each axis to have a range that is not affected by the ranges of any other axis or axes.

Interpolate

To assign new values for the variables at data points in one zone based on the data point values in another zone (or set of zones).

Interpolate Mode

When probing is activated using a single mouse click, the value returned is linearly interpolated from all nodes in the cell. See also: Nearest Point Mode.

Internal Macro Variable

A read-only macro variable which allows you to access certain key values in Tecplot 360. For example, $NUMVARS gives the number of variables.

I-Plane

In an ordered zone, the connected surface of all points with a constant I-index. In reality, I-planes may be cylinders, spheres, or any other shape.

Irregular Data

Points which have no order, or at least no order which can be easily converted to IJK or IJK-ordering.

Iso-Surface

A surface within a 3D zone where the contour variable has a constant value at all locations.

Journal

Log of data manipulation/creation/deletion instructions.

J-Plane

In an ordered zone, the connected surface of all points with a constant J-index. In reality, J-planes may be cylinders, spheres, or any other shape.

Kriging

A technique to interpolate the value of a random field at an unobserved location from observations of its value at nearby locations.

K-Plane

In an IJK-ordered zone, the connected surface of all points with a constant K-index. In reality, K-planes may be cylinders, spheres, or any other shape.

Layout File

A specialized macro file with extension .lay which preserves a plot created within Tecplot 360. When the layout is opened, it restores Tecplot 360 to the state it was in when the layout file was saved.

Layout Package File

A binary layout file with the .lpk extension which has the data embedded in the file.

Line Map

A set of points from a single zone where one variable is assigned to an X-axis and another is assigned to a Y-axis. You can define many XY-maps for an XY-plot.

Macro

A file containing a list of instructions, called macro commands, which can duplicate virtually any action performed in Tecplot 360.

Macro Command

An instruction given to Tecplot 360 in a macro file. Macro commands always start with a dollar sign and then an exclamation mark. For example, $!Redraw refreshes a plot view.

Macro File

A file which contains a series of macro commands. Macro files are run from the command line, or through the Play option of the Scripting menu.

Macro Function

A self-contained macro sub-routine.

Macro Variable

A holding place for numeric values in a macro file. There are two types of macro variables: user-defined (you set and retrieve the value), or internal (Tecplot 360 sets the value and you may retrieve it).

Map Layer

One way of displaying a line mapping, such as with line, bars, symbols, and so forth. One mapping may be displayed with one or more layers.

Median Axis

In 3D, the grid axis which when scaled is not the shortest nor the longest axis.

Menu Bar

The top bar of the Tecplot 360 screen used to select menu options.

Mesh

A 2D or 3D field plot type which plots connections between data points.

Multi-Colored

Any Tecplot 360 object which is colored by the value of the contouring variable. Multi-colored objects may include mesh, scatter symbols, vectors, contour lines, and streamtraces.

Nearest Point Mode

When probing is activated using a Control+click, the value returned is the precise value of the closest data point. See also: Interpolate Mode.

Node

A point in finite element data.

Number Format

The style of numbers to display for a data or axis label; exponent, integer, float, and so forth.

OpenGL

A graphics library for high-end 3D graphics. It commonly takes advantage of hardware acceleration for 3D rendering.

Ordered Data

A type of data point organization which consists of a parameterized series of points. There are seven types of ordered data: I, J, K, IJ, JK, IK, and IJK-ordered. I, IJ, and IJK-ordered are the most common.

Orthographic Projection

A plot view in which the shape of the object is independent of distance.This is used for displaying physical objects when preserving the true lengths is important.

Overlay

Mesh type where mesh lines are drawn over all field-plot layers, except for vector and scatter layers.

Pick

Select an item in the plot area by clicking on it with the mouse.

Plot Type

Determines the type of plot which is displayed in a frame. For example, 2D Cartesian plot, 3D Cartesian plot, XY Line plot, Polar Line plot, or Sketch plot.

PLOT3D

A plotting package developed by NASA.

Polar Line Plot

A plot of radius versus angle, or vice versa. The polar axes are the radial axis (by default zero at the origin) and theta axis (by default zero for any data on the right running horizontal line).

Polygonal

A 2D, face-based finite element type. The number of nodes per element is variable. That is, a single polygonal zone may contain triangular, quadrilateral, hexagonal, …​, etc. elements.

Polyhedral

A 3D, face-based finite element type. The number of nodes per element is variable. That is, a single polyhedral zone may contain tetrahedral and brick (and other) elements.

Polylines

A shape composed of one or more joined line segments. May be closed (i.e., a polygon) or open.

Polytope

The generalization to any dimension of "polygon" in two dimensions, "polyhedron" in three dimensions, and "polychoron" in four dimensions

Pop

Bring selected geometries or text to the top of the viewstack.

Precise Dot Grid

The points of intersection of the imaginary lines extending from the X- and Y-axes' tick marks.

Primary Corner

The point in an ordered zone’s cell that has the minimum index values for that cell, or the first listed node of a finite element cell.

Probe

To obtain interpolated values of the dataset variables at a specified location by clicking on a point in the data region.

Push

Send selected geometries or text to the bottom of the viewstack.

Quadrilateral

An element type of finite element surface data which is composed of four node points arranged in a quadrilateral. Used in 2D and 3D surface plotting.

Quick Macro Panel

A user-defined panel accessed from the Scripting menu which allows quick access to your macro functions.

Rake

A line along which a number of streamtraces may be seeded.

RGB Color Flooding

The assignment of color based on Red, Green, and Blue components defined at field data locations.

Ribbon

(See Streamribbon.)

Richardson Extrapolation

A sequence acceleration method, used to improve the rate of convergence of a sequence.

Rod

(See Streamrod.)

Scatter

A 2D or 3D field plot type which plots a symbol at each data point.

SDK

A Tecplot software development kit, providing a library that integrates visualization capabilities into an application.

Shade Plot

A 2D or 3D field plot type which plots solid color or colors with lighting effect over the cells of the data.

Sharing

Variable sharing allows a single storage location to be used by more than one party. For example, if the X-variable is shared between zones five and seven, only one storage location is created. The storage is not freed by Tecplot 360 until the number of parties accessing the data is reduced to zero. Variables and connectivity information may be shared.

Sidebar

A movable, dockable panel (by default located on the left side of the Tecplot 360 window) which provides quick access to frequently-used functionality. Tecplot 360 includes multiple sidebars: Plot, Frames, Pages, Probe, and Quick Macro.

Sketch Plot

A plot which displays only text and geometries, not any data-derived elements.

Slice

A set of data created by the intersection of a plane with 3D zones.

Snap-to-Grid

Lock any object on the screen to the closest grid point. The position and size of the object will be affected by changes to the grid.

Snap-to-Paper

Lock any object on the screen to the underlying paper. The position and size of the object will not be affected by changes to the grid.

Sorting

The process of resolving hidden-surface problems during display of a 3D plot.

Specular Highlights

Highlights with qualities similar to those of a smooth reflecting surface such as metal, where light is reflected so intensely from some points that the plot appears white (or the color of the light) at those points.

Status Line

The bar located at the bottom of the Tecplot 360 screen which provides "hover" help for tools and acts as a progress bar during calculations.

Strand

A series of transient zones that represent the same part of a dataset at different times.

Stream

Particle traces through a vector field.

Stream Format

The type of streamtraces being placed in Tecplot 360. For example, Surface Line, Volume Line, Volume Ribbon, or Volume Rod.

Streamline

A 2D or 3D line which is parallel to the vector field along its entire length. For a steady state vector field, this is the same as a simple particle trace which marks the path of a massless particle in the vector field.

Streamribbon

A particle trace with a width which not only follows the flow field (its center being a regular streamline), but which also twists with the vorticity of the vector field.

Streamrod

A particle trace with a polygonal cross-section and a width which not only follows the flow field (its center being a regular streamline), but which also rotates with the vorticity of the vector field.

Streamtrace

Any type of particle trace: streamlines, streamribbons, or streamrods.

Streamtrace Termination Line

A polyline that terminates any streamtraces that cross it.

Streamtrace Zone

Any streamtrace which has been extracted to form a new zone.

Stylesheet

A type of file which contains the definition of how the plot in a single frame is to be plotted. The stylesheet does not contain any zone data but does contain information about views, axes positions, zone attributes, and so forth.

Supersampling Factor

When antialiasing an image for export, the factor Tecplot 360 uses when creating an intermediate image that is then resized down to the final image size. The larger the value, the smoother the resulting image at the cost of performance. Values of more than 3 are seldom necessary.

Surface Line

A type of 3D streamline which is confined to remain on a 3D surface. Also used to refer to streamlines.

Symbols Mapping Layer

Line plot where symbols are used to depict the relationship between the dependent and independent variables.

Tecplot Toolbox

The Tecplot Toolbox is a convenience library that provides alternate method for communicating with the Tecplot Engine.

Time/Date

A type of axis label format with which you can label axes by using a multitude of codes that can display data in years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds.

Toolbar

The bar at the top of the Tecplot 360 workspace.

Tetrahedron

An element type of finite element volume data which is composed of four node points arranged in a tetrahedron. (Used in 3D volume plotting.)

Transient Data

Data that has a time component in addition to a spatial coordinate.

Translucency

A property allowing you to see through an object to areas within or beyond it. In Tecplot 360 you may vary the amount of translucency, controlling the extent that an object closer to you obscures an object it overlays.

Triangle

An element type of finite element surface data which is composed of three node points. (Used in 2D and 3D surface plotting.)

Unordered or Unorganized Data

(See Irregular Data.)

Value-Blanking

A feature of Tecplot 360 used to trim or eliminate cells based on one or more user-defined constraints for variable values.

Variable

One of the values defined at every data point in a dataset.

Vector Layer

A field plot showing the direction and or the magnitude of vector quantities.

Volume Line

A type of 3D streamline which is not confined to remain on a surface and may travel through 3D volume data.

Volume Zone

Any zone that is IJK-ordered, finite element tetrahedron, or finite element brick.

Vorticity

The measurement of the tendency of a vector field to rotate about a point. (Also called "curl.")

Wire Frame

Mesh type where mesh lines are drawn behind all other plot layers.

Workspace

The portion of your screen where you can create Tecplot 360 frames. This includes but is not limited to the region covered by the displayed paper.

XY-Dependent

A 3D axis mode where X and Y are fixed (dependent), but Z is free to vary in ratio (independent).

XY Line Plot

Plots one variable assigned to one axis versus another variable assigned to another axis. Log plots, bar charts, and curve fitted lines are all examples of XY Line plots.

Zone

A subset of a dataset which is assigned certain plot types. Zones may be activated (plotted) or deactivated (not plotted). Each zone has one type of data ordering: I, IJ, IJK, or finite element. Zones are typically used to distinguish different portions of the data. For example, different calculations, experimental versus theoretical results, different time steps, or different types of objects, such as a wing surface versus a vector field around a wing.

Zone Layers

One way of displaying a 2D or 3D plot’s dataset. The plot is the sum of the active zone layers, which may include mesh, contour, vector, shade, scatter and edge.