Multi-Window Operation

Each window has the full functionality of interaction and transform control available within the full modeling window. Interactive mouse control, locked transforms, the click viewer, World, Dataset, Region, Surface, Plot and Light object transforms as well as Detach/Reset all work for the current window whether you have a single window or multi-window arrangement.

Figure 1.

There is a toolbar within each window, fixed in the upper left corner. A Window Actions menu, accessible from either the vertical or horizontal split icons on the window toolbar, lets you create a new window by splitting the current one. Windows can be split repeatedly, either horizontally or vertically. When a window is split, the new window resulting from that action becomes the current window.

The toolbar for the current window is colored green and is highlighted with a green border. To make a different window current, left-click anywhere in the window of interest.

Sashes are used to identify the borders separating each window. A handle located at the center of each sash can be used to interactively resize windows. Windows within the graphics window are interconnected. If a window is resized, any windows bordering it will also be resized, growing or shrinking to fully occupy the space defined by the graphics window.

Window Split Actions

When you start AcuFieldView, the green toolbar in the upper left corner of your graphics window appears. Clicking on either the vertical or horizontal split buttons gives you options for splitting the current window. Three distinct actions can be performed when a window is split: Copy, Instance or Empty. Copy and Instance per-form specific operations with the visualization objects (surfaces and rakes) present in the window prior to splitting it.

Figure 2.

Window Action: Copy

When Copy is selected from the Window Actions menu, a virtual representation for all of the datasets in current window is created. As part of the Copy action, the visualization objects for each dataset in the original window are re-created on virtual datasets in the new window produced by the split. These visualization objects are independent representations and can be displayed with different attributes than their original content. The image below starts (at left) with a coordinate plane colored with the scalar function temperature, and a boundary surface with the display type mesh. After a vertical split, Copy action, a new coordinate surface and a new boundary surface are created in window two at right. At this point, the scalar function for the coordinate surface in window two is changed from temperature to concentration.

Figure 3. Vertical Split, Copy Action

Following a Copy action, it is possible to create new visualization objects in one window and not the other. It is also possible to save a current dataset restart for the data in one window, make another window current, and open the current dataset restart, creating the surfaces and rakes defined from the restart on the current dataset in the current window.

Window Action: Instance

When the Instance action is selected, a view-only representation of the visualization object(s) for all datasets in the original window is created in the new window. Selecting any instanced visualization object by quick-picking in any window lets you modify it. Modifications, such as changing the scalar function or scalar range for example, are automatically propagated to all instances of that visualization object.

The image below starts (at left) with the same surfaces that were used in the Copy example above. After a vertical split, instance action, the visualization objects are displayed in both windows. The view direction can be modified independently for each window, letting you view these visualization objects from different angles.

If you create a new surface or rake on any dataset in either window, an instance of that object is displayed in all windows which were created using the Instance action.

Figure 4. Vertical Split, Instance Action

Window Action: Empty

When the Empty action is selected, a new window is created without any virtual copies of datasets or visualization objects, as shown below. If the empty window remains current, any dataset when read in will be displayed in it. The contents of all other windows will remain undisturbed.

Figure 5. Vertical Split, Empty Action