ACT Extension: Figures Manager

Demonstration video (version 1.2)

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The Figures Manager ACT binary extension can be downloaded and used for your own purposes.

Current release

Version History

Documentation

The extension functionality is accessible using the Figures Manager toolbar, see Figure 1. The toolbar contains four buttons which can be used to perform the following actions:

• Setting up of the Figures properties using the Figures Manager table
• Exporting Figures
• Setting options
• Accessing help and support

Figure 1: Figures Manager toolbar (ANSYS 2020 R1)

Setting up of the Figures properties using the Figures Manager table

The Figures Manager table enables a user to easily manage multiple Figures.

In the first step, after pressing the Figures Manager table button (see Figure 1), the Figures Selection table is displayed (see Figure 2). The Figures Selection table has been implemented in order to reduce collection of the Figures properties in the following step which may be time-consuming for more Figures. The reduction can be performed by:

• selecting Figures of interest in the table – Figures properties will be collected only for selected Figures,
• or by unchecking “Collect properties of selected figures” checkbox (see Figure 2) - data collection will not be performed, and the actual Figures properties will not be displayed.

Figure 2: Figures Manager – Figures Selection table

In the second step, the Figures Manager table is shown. It contains Figures (selected in the Figures Selection table) and their properties in the synoptic table (see Figure 3). If the “Collect properties of selected figures” option was checked, the Figures Manager table collects actual Figures properties and displays them; otherwise “Do not change” values are displayed. The Figure properties are organized in the table columns. Change of a property for more Figures can be easily performed by using multiple rows selection.

The following Figure properties are displayed:

• Figure Name
• Analysis [read-only]
• Parent Name [read-only]
• Parent Type [read-only]
• Load Step [read-only]
• Substep [read-only]
• Time/Frequency [read-only]
• View
• Deformed Scale
• Display Type
• Contour Type
• Edge Display
• Max Symbol
• Min Symbol
• Legend

Figure 3: Figures Manager table

The Outline tree and the Figure objects which correspond to the listed Figures in the Figures Manager table (see Figure 3) are shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Figures in the Outline tree (ANSYS 2020 R1)

Exporting Figures

Export Figures tool (see Figure 5) enables a user to easily export Figures to image files. Export Figures provides the following options:

• Image Format (PNG, JPEG, TIFF, BMP, EPS, PNG Transparent)
• Orientation (Portrait, Landscape)
• Color (Monochrome, Colored)
• White background (forces white background color)
• Resolution
  • Width
  • Height
  • Common (only common resolution can be set)
• Text style
  • Font
  • Font Style (Regular, Italic)
  • Size
• Visibility of
  • Legend
  • Ruler
  • Triad
  • Coordinate System
• Figures selection (provides an option to select Figures to export)

Figure 5: Export of Figures

Setting options

Settings of Figures Manager extension can be maintained in the Settings window (see Figure 6). The Settings window can be displayed by pressing the Settings button located in the Figures Manager toolbar. The Settings window contains “Use only predefined legends” option. If the option is checked, only the predefined legends (using the Named Legends) will be available together with “Default” legend and “Do not change” option which assures that the legend will not be changed. If it is not checked, all legends will be available. It is checked by default.

Figure 6: Figures Manager – Settings window

Accessing help and support

The About button displays a window in which the hyperlinks to the website of the developers company and this help are available.

Known Issues and Limitations (related to version 2.5)

When a project contains more result Figures, collecting of the Figures properties can be time consuming. It is due to the fact that the Figure must be rendered on the screen to get its graphics-related properties. Each Figure rendering is performance-intensive; therefore, the progress bar has been added to the Figures Manger table to inform a user about the progress of data collection. For many Figures in the project, it is recommended:

• to select only the Figures of interest in the Figures Selection table (see Figure 2),
• or uncheck “Collect properties of selected figures” checkbox in the Figures Selection table (see Figure 2). Thus, no data collection will be performed, but the actual Figures properties will not be displayed.