Postprocessing and Visualization Updates
COMSOL Multiphysics® version 5.5 brings moving points and arrows to streamline plots, a Filter dataset, and image export improvements. Browse all of the postprocessing and visualization updates included in COMSOL Multiphysics® version 5.5 below.
Spheres and Arrows That Move with the Field in Streamline Plots
Streamline plots have been improved with the addition of points and arrows that move with the velocity field. With these additions, you can create animations that give a feeling for how the velocity field behaves in different regions. The points act like massless particles moving within the flow and the arrows move along the path of the streamlines.
Spheres moving with the flow in the water purification reactor model.
Arrows moving along the streamlines in the water purification reactor model.
Filter Dataset
The new Filter dataset extracts the subset of a geometry where an expression falls within a given range. This is a generic tool that is useful in several situations. In plots, these can be used as an alternative to filter subnodes. In numerical evaluation, you can accurately compute the volume where an expression falls within a given range by integrating 1 over the Filter dataset. In topology optimization, you can create a mesh part from a Filter dataset, seen in the Bracket — Topology Optimization and Exporting and Importing a Topology Optimized Hook models.
Image Export Improvements
In addition to exporting images of results plots, image export nodes now support exporting images from most kinds of nodes in the Model Builder tree, including geometry, mesh, functions, physics, and more. You can also set the view within the settings, making it easier to export multiple images of the same model at different points in the modeling process.
Image Snapshot Improvements
When generating image snapshots, you can now save your settings as presets that are accessible from the Graphics toolbar, making it much easier to produce multiple images in quick succession. There is also a new COMSOL® ribbon tab in PowerPoint® for importing COMSOL® model images. Within the COMSOL® software, there is an output target that bundles the image generated for the clipboard with metadata, which enables the images to remain linked to the COMSOL® model file when inserted into a slide. Then, in PowerPoint®, you can update linked images, for example, to reflect changes in the solution or the plot.
Selections in 2D and 3D Plot Groups
If you want to restrict a plot to a subset of the domains, then you can add a Selection subnode to the plot. This functionality has been available since previous versions. To make it easier to use coordinate selections in plots belonging to the same plot group, there is now support for specifying a selection for the entire plot group. With this new functionality, you can also now control selections for multiple dimensions by defining the selection for the highest dimension where it should be applied (domains and boundaries), and enabling propagation of the selection to lower dimensions (boundaries and edges).
Models that demonstrate this functionality:
- ecore_transformer
- parallel_wires
- serpentine_flow_field
- electrodialysis
- dipole_antenna
Step Between Expressions Using Toolbar Buttons
Sometimes you want to look at the same plot for a set of expressions belonging to a group, for example, the species in a chemical engineering model. To make this easier, we have added two toolbar buttons to the Expression section toolbar in a plot's Settings window, which move between the previous and next expression in the same group.
Transposed Evaluation in Evaluation Groups
Evaluation groups were introduced in COMSOL Multiphysics® version 5.4 as a way to improve the usability and flexibility of the numerical evaluation tools in the COMSOL® software. The most important improvement of evaluation groups in version 5.5 is that we have added support for transposing the results of the evaluation. Some examples where this can be helpful are for visually comparing two or more values in a table, when you are evaluating many expressions, or when you evaluate expressions for many particles (using the Particle Tracing Module) or rays (using the Ray Optics Module or Acoustics Module).
Models that demonstrate this functionality:
- failure_prediction_in_a_laminated_composite_shell
- pinched_hemispherical_shell
Gradient Between Two Colors in Plots
The new gradient coloring option lets you create your own color gradients for the results of your simulation. You have the option to select Gradient as the coloring and then simply select a top and bottom color, and the gradient will be applied.
Models that demonstrate this functionality:
- compact_camera_module
- magnetophoretic_separation
- tilted_pad_bearing
- twophase_flow_fsi
PLY and 3MF Export of Plots
Export of plot data represented as surface meshes to the STL file format has been available in COMSOL Multiphysics® for a long time. Version 5.5 adds support for the PLY and 3MF file formats, which are similar to STL but additionally supports associated field or color data. This makes it possible, for example, to 3D print in color or to import colored surface mesh files into other 3D modeling software.
Advanced Settings for Max/Min Plots and Evaluations
When calculating the maximum and/or minimum values in plots and evaluations, you can now specify the point type to evaluate: Node points, Gauss points, and Lagrange points. This makes the evaluation of maximum and minimum values consistent with that of the Maximum and Minimum operators for Nonlocal Couplings. The functionality is available for Max/Min plots as well as for Maximum- and Minimum-derived values and evaluation groups.
General Transformation for Evaluation Groups
Since COMSOL Multiphysics® version 5.4, you have been able to evaluate the sum and average for quantities evaluated by an Evaluation Group. Now, you can also evaluate general expressions, such as relative errors, by typing an expression using tags associated with each evaluation node in an Evaluation Group.
