User Interface Tosca Structure.view

The usage of Tosca Structure.view is discussed within this section.

The main window of Tosca Structure.view is shown in the following figure:

At the top you have a menu and button panel. On the left the case panel is activated in which the different cases included in the vtfx file are listed. Related case information for the active case is shown at the bottom. To access the case panel press the case button (marked in the above figure).

Model Navigation

In the main window in the middle you see the model (or result graph) of your active case. To rotate or move the model you have to press Ctrl and use your mouse as follows:

To rotate the model in space, move the mouse while holding Ctrl + right mouse button.


To translate the model, move the mouse while holding Ctrl + middle mouse button.

Use the mouse wheel to zoom in or out. Pressing "F" key scales the model to fit in the current view.


To rotate the model in plane, move the mouse while holding Ctrl + left mouse button.

Case Panel

  • In the case panel you can select another case by double click on it or you pull the other case in the main window by pressing left mouse button.
  • For example, you can select the origin model or, if you are in shape optimization you can watch the displacements.
  • You can also select different graphs, for example the convergence of the constraint.
  • If you want to superpose two cases press additionally "Alt"-key when pulling second case in the main window. More information about the case are shown in the lower part of panel.

Toolbar Functions

Several useful items of the menu are created as buttons, which are arranged in the button panel:

Open file.


Capture active view, QuickCapture active view (with previous settings) and Capture all view cases to Tosca Structure Report Builder.


Show or hide Info Box, Text and Legend. (See also View menu).




Reset view: Restores the default view.


Rubber Band Zoom: zooms in the selected region.


Viewports: Select the number of viewports (one to four) and their placement (vertical/horizontal split)


Rotation and movement: Move as contour, move more than one part synchronously, rotate around an automatically chosen center and chose your desired center of rotation yourself.




Select a part or an element or a node by clicking them with the mouse. Selected objects are shown in the selection panel.


Measure a distance and delete your measured distance.


Full screen.


To display another step or to start the animation, use the animation toolbar. The same actions are accessible in main menu Animation group.


Select one of the cases or go to the next or previous one.



You can add or remove the case panel, the selection panel, the settings panel and the result panel.

Selection Panel

The selection button on the toolbar enables the selection of parts (such as the original and the new surface in VTFX files generated by Tosca Structure.smooth), elements or nodes by clicking them with the mouse. The selected object is shown in details in Selection Panel.

Settings Panel

The button Settings Panel displays the panel containing the list of parts and groups (denoted "Element Sets"; the node groups are also shown via artificial element sets). It allows to set visibility and drawing modes of parts and element sets.

Result Panel

In order to change the settings of the fringe plot, display Results Panel using a button on the toolbar or Panels > Results Panel main menu command. In this window, the coloring scheme can be changed in Legend Settings panel; the values corresponding to the colors can be changed by deselecting Automatic range settings check box and entering the values in Minimum and Maximum text fields or using the arrows below.

Tip: The information about remaining toolbar buttons appears in the help window shown by Help > Help Contents command or when pressing F1-key.

Viewport Settings

Tosca Structure.view allows to save the actual viewport and to reload existing user defined viewports.

  1. Right-click in the view window and choose View From > User Defined > Save.
  2. A file dialogue opens which allows the saving of the actual viewport in a .vcx file. This feature can also be accessed using the menu View > View From > User Defined > Save.
  3. An existing viewport is loaded in the same manner: right-click in the view window and choose View From > User Defined > Open. All viewports (.vcx files) saved in the same folder as the vtfx file are directly available in the submenu.

Export Images and Animations

Tosca Structure.view allows the export of images of the current view or of animations in avi format (avi-export for windows only):





Preferences

With View > Preferences general settings for Tosca Structure.view can be saved. These include setting the plot line width.