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Visualizing Output with ICE

Revision as of 08:55, 26 January 2017 by Crawfordst.ornl.gov (Talk | contribs) (Visualizing Output)

Currently, ICE features three plugins for visualizing and plotting simulation output data:

  • VisIt Tools - An interactive 3-D visualization tool for rendering meshes, scalar plots, contour plots, and more.
  • ParaView Tools - Another interactive 3-D visualization tool offered as an alternative to VisIt.
  • CSV Plotting Tools - A customizable 2-D data plotting utility for .csv data files.

ICE's VisIt tool for 3D visualzation ICE's CSV plotter for 2D graphing

Prerequisites

VisIt

To use the VisIt tools, ICE requires the installation of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's VisIt software (version 2.8.2 to 2.9.2) either locally or on a remote machine.

The VisIt website offers example data files that you can use to familiarize yourself with the VisIt tools.

ParaView

Using the ParaView tools requires an installation of Kitware's ParaView (version 5.0 or newer) on a Linux or Mac OS X machine.

CSV Plotting Tools

The CSV plotting tools are built into ICE and require no additional software to be installed.

Visualizing Output

Using the Project Explorer (Option 1)

Although not as feature rich as the "Visualization Perspective," using and configuring the "Project Explorer" view for VisIt and ParaView makes the process easier for a novice user.

Adding the Data File

The data file must first be placed in the "Project Explorer." This view lists files imported into ICE. To access the "Project Explorer," use the the main menu bar at the top of the window and navigate to:

Window > Show View > Other

In the resulting "Show View" dialog, select:

General > Project Explorer and click OK.

Show view project explorer stc.png

By default, the "Project Explorer" should automatically import the  ICEFiles/default  and  ICEFiles/itemDB  folders. If it does not, or if you want to import a different folder into ICE, right click in the "Project Explorer" view and select Import... from the context menu.

In the resulting "Import" dialog, select General > File System from the tree and then click the Next button.

Import view visit stc.png

From the resulting "File System" dialog, you can then select directories and/or files to import into the "Project Explorer."

In this example, we're loading a 3-D silo from VisIt's library of examples into "Project 1."

ProjectExplorerImportFilesDialog ICE.png

For .csv files, you can simply double click their listing in the "Project Explorer" view to open them.

Similarly, VisIt and ParaView files can be opened by double clicking, but you must first establish a connection to VisIt or ParaView.

Configuring the VisIt Connection

Creating a default VisIt connection will enable ICE to automatically connect to VisIt at launch. To start:

  • Windows or Linux: in ICE's toolbar, select Window > Preferences, then Visualization > VisIt in the tree of the "Preferences" page.
  • Mac OS X: in ICE's toolbar, select ICE > Preferences, then Visualization > VisIt in the tree of the "Preferences" page.

Press the new row button (stylized as a "+" symbol) in the upper-right corner of the resulting dialog box.

VisItPreferencePage ICE.png

The default values supplied automatically by ICE should be fine for most users. However, two fields may need to be changed to accommodate a user's configuration, and you can click on each cell to edit the parameter.

  • Host: The default value for this field is "localhost," which is used for connecting to a local installation of VisIt on a user's machine. To launch a remote VisIt connection, the remote hostname/address should be entered into this field.
  • Path: If correctly installed, the VisIt path should populate in ICE by default. If not, the user should add the full path to the local VisIt installation. The path should end with the folder containing the VisIt executable.
    • On a Windows machine with VisIt installed in the default location, the path would be:
      • C:\Users\[UserName]\AppData\Local\Programs\LLNL\VisIt 2.9.2\
    • On a Linux machine, the path will be based on where you extracted the  visit2_9_2.linux-x86  folder, ending with  ~/visit2_9_2.linux-x86_64/bin. For example, if unzipped to the desktop, it would be:
      • /home/[UserName]/Desktop/visit2_9_2.linux-x86_64/bin/
    • On Mac OS X, VisIt should be installed in the machine's "Applications" directory, unless otherwise specified by the user.
      • /Applications/VisIt.app/Contents/Resources/bin/

Once finished, press Apply, then OK. ICE will then open VisIt and connect to it.

Visit connection apply stc.png

If you are connecting to a remote host, you may be prompted to "allow" the connection to the remote host. Click Yes to trust the connection, and enter the credentials for the remote machine in the prompt.

Configuring the ParaView Connection

As with VisIt, creating a default ParaView connection will enable ICE to automatically connect to ParaView at launch. To start:

  • Windows or Linux: in ICE's toolbar, select Window > Preferences, then Visualization > ParaView in the tree of the "Preferences" page.
  • Mac OS X: in ICE's toolbar, select ICE > Preferences, then Visualization > ParaView in the tree of the "Preferences" page.

Press the new row button (stylized as a "+" symbol) in the upper-right corner of the resulting dialog box.

Add para connection stc.png

The default values supplied automatically by ICE should be fine for most users. However, some fields may need to be changed to accommodate a user's configuration, and you can click on each cell to edit the parameter.

  • Host: The default value for this field is "localhost," which is used for connecting to a local installation of ParaView on a user's machine; keep this setting if you are running ParaView on the same machine as the ICE framework. To launch a remote ParaView connection, the remote hostname/address should be entered into this field.
  • Path: If correctly installed, the ParaView path should populate in ICE by default. If not, the user should add the full path to the local ParaView installation. The path should end with the folder containing the ParaView executable.
    • On a Windows machine, the path will be based on where you extracted the contents of the  ParaView-5.2.0-Qt4-OpenGL2-Windows-64bit.zip  archive. For example, if you unzipped to the desktop without renaming the archive, the path would be:
      • C:\Users\[UserName]\Desktop\ParaView-5.2.0-Qt4-OpenGL2-Windows-64bit\
    • On a Linux machine, the path will be based on where you extracted the contents of the  ParaView-5.2.0-Qt4-OpenGL2-MPI-Linux-64bit.tar.gz  archive. For example, if you unzipped to the desktop without renaming the archive, the path would be:
      • /home/[UserName]/Desktop/ParaView-5.2.0-Qt4-OpenGL2-MPI-Linux-64bit/
    • On Mac OS X, ParaView's executable should be installed in the machine's "Applications" directory, unless otherwise specified by the user. Therefore, the path would simply be:
      • /Applications/
  • Server Script Path: The full path to the  http_pvw_server.py  file, ending with the folder containing it. For example, if the file is on your desktop, the path might be (for Linux): /home/[UserName]/Desktop/.
  • Visualizer Port: Port number for the ParaView web visualizer. The default number (9601) should work but can be changed if needed. If changed, it must differ from the ParaView port number (9600).
  • Remote OS: The operating system of the remote machine on which ParaView will be launched. If you are launching ParaView on your local machine, ignore this cell.
  • Remote ParaView Version Number: The version of ParaView you are using. This may be ignored unless you are launching a remote ParaView session on a Linux machine. You can check your installation's version number by looking inside the top level  lib  directory. The  lib  directory should contain a folder named  paraview-  followed by the version number.

Once finished, click Apply, and then click OK. ICE will open ParaView and connect to it.

Para connection apply stc.png

If you are connecting to a remote host, you may be prompted to "allow" the connection to the remote host. Click Yes to trust the connection, and enter the credentials for the remote machine in the prompt.

Plot Editors

Once a connection with VisIt or ParaView has been established, the "Plot Editor" view will appear and display the contents of the file that was imported into "Project 1." This view allows the user to manipulate the visualization just as they would with the VisIt or ParaView GUI.

For .csv files, right clicking or using the Select series... button in the upper left of the "Plot Editor" pane allows the user to add or remove data series from the graph.

If at any point you should close the "Plot Editor," simply double click on the imported file to redraw the visualization.

Visit visualizer ICE stc.png

Similarly, a VisIt and ParaView plot editor will allow you to choose the mesh and scalar to model and the model's representation. These editors also feature a slider at the bottom, allowing the user to interact with time data.

TimeSliderWidget ICE.png

The arrow buttons move to the previous or next time step, and the triangle button causes the Plot Editor to play the simulation automatically. The final button displays playback options. The current time is displayed, and you can manually drag the slider along the timeline to choose a specific time step to display.

The ParaView plot editor will also have a Launch in Web Visualizer button to open the file in ParaView's Web Visualizer inside of ICE. The full functionality of the Web Visualizer is beyond the scope of this article, but interested readers can learn more from the official documentation.

Using the Visualization Perspective (Option 2)

CSV Plot Viewer in the Visualization Perspective

ICE includes, out of the box, basic CSV data plotting utilities for fast and easy x/y graph visualizations. This section describes how to open your CSV data using the Plot Editor in the Visualization Perspective.

Adding/Removing Files

To open a file, find the green "+" icon in the Visualization File Viewer. Clicking directly on the green "+" icon will prompt a local file browser to pop up. You can also access this option by clicking on the drop-down button next to the green "+" icon.

ICE VisItAddFileButton.png

This will offer you four ways to open file(s):

  • Open a local file
  • Open a remote file
  • Open a local file set
  • Open a local SILO set
Note.png
ICE's CSV Plot Viewer can only open local files, so when opening CSV files for plotting, you need only click the green "+" button to select and add local files.


Once you have selected your file(s), they should appear in the Visualization File Viewer.

Lastly, if you would like to remove a file from the Visualization File Viewer list, select it, and click the red "X" button.

Alternatively, you may open .csv files directly through the Project Explorer. This may be done by clicking Window -> Show View -> Other... and selecting Project Explorer. Within the Project Explorer, right click and click Import...

ICE CSV Plot Editor Import File1.png

In the pop-up window, select General -> File System as shown above, then click next

ICE CSV Plot Editor Import File2.png

Select the directory housing the data you wish to visualize in the From Directory field, then select which sub-directories and/or files you wish to import in the two boxes below it. Select the folder to import the files into in the Into folder field and click Next. The files will appear within the selected folder in the Project Explorer, and can be opened by double clicking them or right clicking and selecting Open With -> PlotEditor.

Note.png
The CSV Plot Viewer requires data to be in an [m x n] format, meaning that files that contain rows with empty values cannot be plotted. Furthermore, the first row is expected to include column headers—the variable names—while each subsequent row should include the numerical data in columns.



Selecting Series

By default, the first series in the file will be used as the independent variable while the second is graphed as a dependent variable. These can both be changed.

To set the independent series, which is used to determine the x-axis values of all points, right click in the Plot Editor and select Set independent series..., which will open a new window. Select the series you want and click the OK button.

There are two ways to select the graphed series. The Select series... button in the upper left corner will allow you to select a single series to graph, removing all others. You may graph multiple series by right clicking in the Plot Editor and clicking Select series.... You may then choose which series to graph by clicking the check boxes in the new window and clicking the OK button. Finally, you may remove all graphed series by right clicking and choosing Remove all series.

Plot Toolbar

The plotting widget used by ICE's CSV Plot Editor includes a toolbar with helpful utilities for navigating your plotted data or customizing the plot's appearance. You can hover the mouse cursor over each button to view a tool tip describing what the button does.

Clicking the first button will open a dialog that allows you to customize the appearance of the plot or individual series on the plot, including titles, scales, grids, colors, and fonts. The last button allows you to save the current appearance of the plot to a .png image file. Feel free to try out the different utilities available in this toolbar.

Executing Python Commands

While many of VisIt's features are already accessible in ICE, work to enable a more robust feature set is on-going. In the meantime, features not yet integrated into ICE can still be accessed via Python commands by clicking the Python script button located in the VisIt Plot Viewer.

ICE VisItPythonScriptButton.png

Writing Python scripts for VisIt is beyond the scope of this tutorial. However, you are welcome to refer to the VisIt Python Interface Manual provided by the VisIt development team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

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