How is EnSight Uniquely Suited to FLOW

How is EnSight Uniquely Suited to FLOW-3D Data?
July 5, 2011
figure 1. FLOW-3D model of Dam visualized with EnSight
If you would like to know how CEI’s EnSight offers you more power than other postprocessors in the market. Consider your needs, and review the partial list of features
below, several which are unique to EnSight.
The first step is getting your data into FLOW-3D.
Direct FLOW-3D Data Reader
EnSight reads directly the “flsgrf” FLOW-3D results files, and the compressed “.flz” files.
Other options include particle tracks, ghost element handling, time control and reading
STL geometry (see separate section on this).
figure 2. Left: FLOW-3D data reader dialog
figure 3. Right: FLOW-3D data reader format options tab.
FLOW-3D Data Reading Wizard
The FLOW-3D reader wizard is an excellent way for FLOW-3D users to access EnSight.
The wizard performs several operations automatically according to the user preferences
so that the first few normal steps in looking at your FLOW-3D data are done
automatically for you. The wizard can be expanded to include more capabilities, either
by CEI or by the FLOW-3D customer.
See this screencast on using the Wizard.
http://www.ensight.com/screencasts/FLOW-3D_wizard/FLOW-3D_wizard.html
Volume Rendering
figure 4. Volume Rendering of a FLOW-3D model of Casting Process
Volume Rendering is useful for peering inside the 3D domain and is particularly useful
for looking at complex 3D fluxes like temperature, density, velocity, and pressure.
Volume Rendering is standard technology used in Medical Imaging like MRI, Seismic
data processing in oil & gas exploration, and 3D weather and climate research. EnSight
is unique in bringing this visualization technology to general CFD such as FLOW-3D
and making it available to structured (IJK indexed) or unstructured CFD data.
EnSight is unique in offering Volume Rendering among the most common CFD postprocessing packages.
STL geometry loading
EnSight’s FLOW-3D reader looks in the dataset for additional model geometry stored in
the STL format. Examples include the ship in the swamping simulation shown below.
figure 5. ship geometry in a FLOW-3D model with the ship overturning
In FLOW-3D, STLs are loaded simply by checking the ‘STL’ box. In EnSight simply
check the “read internal STL” checkbox to bring in the geometry stored in the FLOW-3D
data. EnSight can also bring in external STL geometry or even CAD files from CATIA,
SolidWorks, NX, and more through direct CAD readers.
Reading Data on Remote Servers
EnSight is quite well known for its ability to load data on remote servers. It does this in
an intelligent and efficient way by providing a separate server application which can be
run on your remote server where the CFD data is computed and you can connect to that
from your local desktop where you run EnSight’s main or client application. This is
easily done using terminal windows if you are used to such things. But if you are more
comfortable in a GUI dialog, use the “Remote Server” utility to make a connection from
your desktop to a remote server. Any computer platform can connect to any other
computer platform.
figure 6. The “Remote Server” user-defined tool.
This icon will bring up the following dialog which remembers your previous settings and
with your password makes a connection to the remote server. It is so easy and
convenient. And you are now leveraging the large memory and power of the server and
the interactivity and graphics of your local desktop. Only EnSight makes this so simple.
figure 7. The “Remote Server” dialog for loading data on remote machines, the
recommended way for large data.
MP Parallel FLOW-3D/MP Data reading
EnSight can now read the data from parallel runs of FLOW-3D, the FLOW-3D/MP
option. Since EnSight has been reading large parallel CFD datasets for over 10 years,
it has the capacity to read and efficiently handle these large datasets.
Case Comparisons
Have you ever wanted to read in multiple FLOW-3D datasets and compare them? With
EnSight you can load up to 16 datasets. You can copy variables from one dataset over
to the other and perform calculations like differences, even if the meshes don’t match up
for example in meshing studies. There is no extra cost to do this and you don’t have to
buy another product or version, it is included in EnSight Standard.
figure 8. Comparing two different gating designs for a casting.
Wide Variety of Free 3D Viewer Options
How can you share simulation results with colleagues, customers, and management?
Images are one way, movies provide the transient dimension, but the ideal way is with a
3D viewer which also handles transient results.
EnSight does not expect that everyone would like the same 3D viewer. EnSight provides
this 3D model sharing capability in several different file formats compatible with several
different 3D viewers.
- TeamCenter JT (including iPads)
- VRML
- X3D
- EnLiten
- Reveal
- Other (export your data in any format you like)
EnLiten provides WYSIWYG 3D model sharing. For customers requiring international
language support or custom features we have CEI’s Reveal 3D viewer. EnLiten and
Reveal are available on Windows, Linux, and Mac platforms, so that everyone on the
team can share results. And both are free.
Stereo Display
Both EnLiten and Reveal from CEI provide stereoscopic viewing using the new 3D
goggles and screens from nVidia, as shown below.
figure 9. EnLiten viewer showing a model in stereo.
Python scripting
There’s nothing like having unlimited expansion capability and the ability to make things
work exactly the way you want them to. CEI includes Python scripting and tools like
command language to python automatic conversion so you can do an operation in
EnSight and get out clean efficient Python code for creating parameterized, standard
scripts to save you time and effort on large, repetitive projects.
Easy to use for transient data
Every version of EnSight has natural and convenient support for transient data. In fact
many customers coming from other 3rd party post-processors come to EnSight for this
capability.
Want to see a different time step, just click the Forward button, backwards one step, use
the backward button. EnSight doesn’t load all the data when you load a transient
dataset, that’s crazy for large models and will swamp your computer or tie up all the
resources of your computer. Instead EnSight uses the concept of streaming of your
FLOW-3D results data, freezing at whatever time step is of interest to you. Just like
Netflix movie streaming. It is the only logical way to handle large transient data with the
minimum of computing resources. And we’ve done it that way since day one.
figure 10. Manipulating time is easy in EnSight, like using a media player.
Again, a major reason people leave some other post-processor for EnSight is because
of EnSight’s excellent support for large transient models.
figure 11. Transient models like this FLOW-3D fuel tank are no more challenge
than static models. EnSight streams the data.
Support for Very Large Models
Another top reason to use EnSight is excellent support for large models. EnSight has
been 64-bit since before 2001. We are a spin off from the supercomputer company
Cray. And we read the data that is computed on the world’s largest supercomputers.
In addition to streaming the transient data and having a client-server architecture for
loading data from remote servers, as mentioned elsewhere, EnSight is packed with
additional tweaks and features making it suitable for very large models. How large?
Back in 2004 we were loading datasets of 12 Billion cells, that’s 12,000,000,000 cells.
Flexible Viewports
EnSight provides the very flexible concept of Viewports for viewing your data. Allowing
you to see the big picture in one viewport and zoom into an area to see details in
another viewport. Different parts can be visible, the viewports can be seamless as
shown below, or very distinctly separated, with unique backgrounds.
figure 12. FLOW-3D model of casting with the experimental data on the lower
right viewport and the complete shape in the simulation in the upper right
viewport. Solution time is shown in the main viewport gauge.
figure 13. Viewports can be blended smoothly as in this figure.
Textures
EnSight is unique in providing texture mapping technology in the CFD post-processing
market. Texture maps allow for decals, realist material surfaces, aerial photos over
construction models, and advanced engineering color palettes.
figure 14. Texture mapping provides context to this satellite data. EnSightcreated image courtesy of NASA.
Keyframe Animation
EnSight offers market-leading animation capabilities including camera-controlled or
keyframe animation. This enables fly-thru movies, exploded views of complex
assemblies, or sliding doors exposing internal volumes. Visit ensight.smugmug.com to
see examples of EnSight’s keyframe animation capabilities. Your movies will soon be
the preferred presentation highlight of your managers.
Conclusion
We’ve described above just some of the unique advantages of EnSight for your FLOW3D data. We didn’t even mention the plotting, extensive variable calculator, and many
other unique quantitative features. So, please stop by our table at the user meeting and
we can talk about your requirements and we can talk about those as well.