D3PLOT 22.1

The Following Environment Variables May Be Used to Control the Behaviour of D3PLOT

The Following Environment Variables May Be Used to Control the Behaviour of D3PLOT

Variable name Description Possible Values Default
The following variables control the graphics and attributes of the display window and menu system.
DISPLAY

The X11 display id on which graphics will be drawn. (This is ignored on "native" Windows systems.)

If this is not defined (most systems initialise this to " :0 ") then no connection can be made to an X server, and no graphics will be drawn.

( <machine name> ) :< server id > ( <.screen id> ) :0
SM_USE_VISUAL

Sets the X11 "visual" id to be used for screen menus. Where a graphics display provides "overlay" planes these should normally be used, otherwise this should be left undefined or set to "default". Using an explicit visual id is possible, and this should be defined in hexadecimal (eg 0xf16).

Experience has shown the on some Silicon Graphics systems using the "overlay" planes can result in very strange colours in other windows, in which case "default" should be used.

Also on some W2000 and graphics board combinations problems may also arise with overlay planes and, again, "default" should be used.

overlay
default
< visual id > in hex

overlay

The following options may be used to configure the menu interface, and are intended for use by those who are having difficulties with the standard settings, or who have displays with unusual attributes.

If you need advice about configuring your machine, and particularly if you suffer from physical impairment that may be eased by changing default settings, please contact Oasys Ltd Support for help.

DISPLAY_SATURATION
DISPLAY_BRIGHTNESS
DISPLAY_FACTOR

Saturation controls the colour saturation (intensity) of menus
Brightness controls the colour brightness of menus
"Factor" sets the relative display scale, and can range from 0.5 (making menus larger) to 2.0 (making them smaller). It may also be set to " automatic " which derives a factor from the physical screen dimensions.

0.0 to 1.0
0.0 to 1.0
0.5 to 2.0, or automatic

1.0
1.0
1.0
SM_FONT_SIZE

Sets the size of fonts used in the menu interface. Possible values are:

SMALL Will reduce the size of text in windows and buttons, and may be suitable on very large displays.
MEDIUM "Normal" text size suitable for most purposes.
LARGE "Large" text, which may be more easily read by those with visual impairment.
DEFAULT The default size (usually medium) on this hardware.
SMALL
MEDIUM
LARGE
DEFAULT

< none >

(implicitly DEFAULT )

SM_FONT_TYPE

Sets the font (type-face) to be used for menu fonts

HELVETICA
HELVETICA-BOLD 		Uses the proportionally spaced "Helvetica" (on X11) or "Arial" (on Windows) fonts.
TIMES
TIMES-BOLD 		Uses the proportionally spaced "Times" font.
COURIER
COURIER-BOLD 		Uses the fixed spaced "Courier" font.

The "Bold" options for the font give a bolder and thicker font.

The actual type-face used on a given platform will depend upon what fonts have been installed on that machine, and it is possible that the font and size combination selected may not be available. For advice on installing fonts please contact Oasys Ltd Support.

HELVETICA
HELVETICA-BOLD

TIMES
TIMES-BOLD

COURIER
COURIER-BOLD

HELVETICA

LEFT_HANDED

Configures the keyboard and/or mouse for left-handed users.

KEYBOARD

Swaps the left and right "meta" keys (<shift>and <ctrl>) for the purposes of dynamic viewing.

Note : At present (Oasys Suite 9.0) this does not work on Windows platforms for technical reasons. We hope to fix this in the future.

MOUSE Swaps the left and right mouse buttons for the purposes of all mouse actions (pick, drag, dynamic viewing)
ALL Both of the above
KEYBOARD
MOUSE
ALL 		< none >

The following two variables apply on Windows platforms only , and should only be used if the menu system is clearly obtaining the wrong display size from the system, as evidenced by fonts and menus being very much the wrong size.

DISPLAY_HEIGHT Set an explicit display height in millimetres <height in mm> <none>
DISPLAY_WIDTH Set an explicit display width in millimetres <width in mm> <none>

The following options can be used to solve fairly obscure memory and display problems on X11 platforms.

USE_PIXMAPS Controls whether or not the menus use "pixmaps" (off-screen memory) to produce smooth scrolling. Turning this off (false) will save memory, and may help memory problems on a display that has only limited memory available for the X server, but will give slightly jerky window scrolling. true or false true
SAVE_UNDER

This flag was introduced to fix a specific bug on Compaq Alpha OSF4.x operating systems. Normally the window manager requests a redraw of windows that have been updated, even when they are currently obscured by something else. However the OSF4 window manager series failed to do this, leading to "bare" patches underneath popup menus when these were unmapped.

Setting this flag to false results in more redraws on these systems since it suppresses the default "save under" property of X11 windows, but it does at least prevent windows getting bare areas.

Compaq have fixed the bug in OSF5, and possibly in later releases of OSF4.

true or false true
ALPHA_PERMIT_BROKEN

Another Compaq problem with older graphics cards under OSF4.x was a crash the first time broken lines for undeformed geometry were drawn. To prevent this Compaq machines have this capability switched off.

To enable undeformed geometry to use broken lines on these machines set this variable to true .

true or false false

The following are normally used when running command files, or performing automatic post-processing in batch mode.

MENU_AUTO_CONFIRM This variable is often used when replaying command files which, when recorded, paused and asked the user to confirm things. (For example HELP and Warning messages.) If the variable is set (true) then these will not pause and will behave as if the user had pressed "OK" - meaning that command files can play back without user intervention. true or false false
FILE_EXIST_ACTION

Action to be taken when opening a file for output, and the file already exists.

Normally you will be prompted for the action to be taken when a file selected for output already exists. However if this variable is set to overwrite or append then the relevant action will be taken automatically.

This is generally used when playing automatic post-processing batch scripts.

< none >
overwrite
append

< none >
SUPPRESS_CHECKPOINT Suppresses the reading and writing of checkpoint files. This is desireable in batch mode since it prevents spurious checkpoint files being read in and processed. true or false false

The following controls the display of on-line manual pages on Unix systems only. (Windows systems use the default web browser.)

NETSTART Command string to start Netscape on Unix/Linux hosts. This is used to fire up the Netscape browser in order to read manual pages from within D3PLOT. Any valid Unix command string. <none>

The following variables control the default behaviour of the database management system.

D3PLOT_CACHE_DATA

Default setting of the " CACHE_DATA " database switch. This controls whether or not D3PLOT attempts to store all data read from disk in its own core image. This setting can be changed manually during execution.

full
(was true prior to V8.3) 		Stores all data read from disk in memory until the database caching memory limits are reached. This can use a lot of memory and is not recommended unless disk access is very slow.
scalar Stores basic nodal coordinates and the current component's "scalar" data only. A reasonable trade-off between speed and memory size.
off
(was false prior to v8.3) 		Only basic nodal coordinate data are stored. Saves memory but may make data-bearing plots slow to modify.

Generally Unix systems are better at cacheing disk data in spare system memory than Windows systems, making "disk" rereads faster since they are actually copied from memory. This makes the " off " option viable under Unix - however you may need to experiment.

full
scalar
off

(Also, for backwards compatibility:

true
false

scalar
D3PLOT_SOFT_LIMIT Controls the amout of memory (in MB) set aside for the "soft" database limit 1 to 2048 MB 60% of system memory
D3PLOT_HARD_LIMIT Controls the amout of memory (in MB) set aside for the "hard" database limit 1 to 2048 MB 80% of system memory

The following variables set special parameters for data file reading and management, and are not normally used.

D3PLOT_SOLID_SE Controls whether or not D3PLOT calculates strain energy density for solid elements. Doing this makes the assumption that the elements have not entered the plastic strain regime, so it is not normally set. true or false false
D3PLOT_SOLID_8

Analyses containing 8 integration points worth of data for solid elements are processed ( NINTSLD = 8 on *DATABASE EXTENT BINARY ), but only the first integration point is normally considered. If this flag is set then limited support for all 8 integration points is provided.

This facility is only partially implemented and should not be relied on.

true or false false
PTF_CONTIGUOUS
CTF_CONTIGUOUS 		Some versions of Ansys LS-DYNA sometimes contravene the rules for starting a new family member, and write data contiguously across file boundaries when they should not. Setting these variables may enable such files to be read. true or false false
D3PLOT_LIST_CROSSED Normally coincident solid elements and those with crossed faces are dealt with by issuing a summary warning that they exist. Set this variable to see a detailed listing of all such elements. true or false false

The following variables are provided for debugging purposes only, and should not normally be used.

XSYNC Runs the X server in "synchronised" (unbuffered) mode. This will give woefully slow graphics, and is used for debugging purposes only. true or false false
WARN_REDEFINE Makes the menu system issue a warning if a button is redefined. Again this is normally only used for debugging purposes. true or false false
CP_FILE_FILTER

When replaying checkpoint files this maps the file filter box and waits for user input, instead of using the path/filename encoded in the checkpoint file.

This is used when replaying checkpoint files on a machine different to that on which they were written, or when the encoded file pathnames are no longer valid.

Though this will not work while replaying the checkpoint commands for the drag-drop of files into the D3PLOT graphics area.

true or false false
CP_DEBUG

When replaying checkpoint files this writes details of each command to <stdout>, and waits for <enter> before proceeding.

0 Off, the default. Checkpoint files play through without halts.
1

On. Checkpoint files echo all commands to <stdout>, and wait for a <return> on <stdin> before proceeding.

However graphics commands (dynamic viewing, zoom, etc) play through without pause.

2 On. As for 1 above, but every command (including dynamic viewing) pauses and waits for confirmation before proceeding.

Used for debugging problem files.

0 (off)
1
2

0
CP_REFORMAT

When replaying checkpoint files written on a machine with a difference display resolution some picking and other screen-dependent operations may not work correctly.

Setting this variable causes the playback machine to map the D3PLOT menu system onto a "virtual" display resolution equal to that of the original machine which *may* solve these problems if the two displays are not wildly different. It is more likely to work if the playback machine has a higher resolution than that on which the file was written.

true or false false
D3PLOT_TIMING Writes the time taken for each frame to be drawn to <stdout>. Used for timing comparison purposes. true or < none > < none >


Previous | Next