PyroSim Results User Manual

Additional Support Resources

This guide is the primary source of documentation for the Results visualization software and describes how to perform common tasks. For additional information describing how different parts of the software work, refer to Chapter 10.

For documentation on other Thunderhead Engineering applications, refer to the product-specific support materials online at https://www.thunderheadeng.com

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1.1. System Requirements

Table 1 lists system requirements necessary to run results visualization.

Results visualization performance (measured in frames per second, or FPS) is controlled by the number of occupants in the model, the complexity of the geometry, and the resolutions of the FDS solution meshes. In one Pathfinder experiment, a single-room model containing 3,000 occupants and 4 geometry triangles operated at 15 FPS. By comparison, a complex model with 50,000 occupants and 1,300,000 geometry triangles operated at 5 FPS.

Performance can be improved in several ways:

1.2. Results Licensing

Results visualization requires a PyroSim or Pathfinder license. Additional information on license activation is located on the corresponding software download page.

To locate a license, a search is performed in standard locations for a valid license. In addition, license locations listed in the PROPS files for PyroSim and Pathfinder are searched.

The search order is shown below:

Results will operate if any valid license is found. It is recommended to run PyroSim or Pathfinder before running the results software to ensure a valid license location is present in the corresponding PROPS file.

For advanced use and license troubleshooting, two command-line options are available:

2.1. Preferences

There are several per-user settings that control how the Results application works. Many of these global settings can be found in the Preferences dialog, which can be opened by clicking the File menu and selecting Preferences. These preferences are stored in a PROPS file called Results.props.

By default, this file can be found in: %APPDATA%\PyroSim\Results.props

The PROPS file is stored in a plaintext format and can be viewed or edited with any conventional text editor.

2.2. Results Visualization File

The Results application allows users to create, save, and load results visualizations. A results visualization is a collection of settings that define which Pathfinder and FDS results are to be loaded and how those results are to be displayed. It also contains information entered by the user, such as views, tours, colorbar settings, time settings, annotations, object visibility, etc.

Results visualization files end with either .pfrv when saved from Pathfinder Results or .smvv when saved from PyroSim Results.

When Pathfinder or FDS results are viewed for the first time, a results visualization is automatically created and saved containing the results data. The visualization file name will match that of the originating PTH or PSM file. If a visualization file already exists with a matching name, the existing visualization is loaded instead. The same behavior is used when double-clicking a PFR or SMV file in Windows explorer.

2.3. Results Timelines

Each results file (Pathfinder or FDS) has its own timeline.

The Timelines dialog, as shown in Figure 2, can be used to control the timelines, set a reference clock time, and set the time range displayed in the results as controlled by the time slider.

To open the timelines dialog, perform one of the following:

There may be up to three timelines in the results. There is always a Global timeline, and depending on which results are loaded, there may also be a Pathfinder timeline and an FDS timeline.

The Global timeline has a Time Reference that is used to synchronize the Pathfinder and FDS results. The time reference has an associated calendar Date and a clock Time, such as June 3, 2018 at 3:47 PM. This value defaults to the date/time at which either the Pathfinder or FDS results was first created. It may be changed, however, to correspond with a real date/time either for event reconstruction or scenario planning.

The date/time may optionally be shown in the 3D View by going to the View menu and under the Time Display sub-menu, selecting either the Date/Time or Time option. The display of the date/time will automatically adjust depending on the current playback time. The Display Format defines how the date/time will be displayed.

The following formats are available:

Timeline Offsets are used to change the beginning time of the FDS and Pathfinder results relative to the global time reference in order to synchronize the timelines properly. This is necessitated by the fact that Pathfinder and FDS simulations are often run as though the beginning time is at some arbitrary value, usually t=0. When loading both Pathfinder and PyroSim/FDS results together at the same time, however, the results files might need to be offset from one another.

The View Timeline specifies the global time range displayed in the results.

It can be one of these values:

2.4. Navigating Through a Model

Once a model is loaded, the navigation tools (Figure 3) work similarly to those found in PyroSim.

At any time, press Ctrl+R to reset the camera view or in the View menu click Reset Camera.

2.5. Scene Camera

There are two main cameras that can be used to view the model. When switching between cameras, the Results application tries to maintain the same viewpoint if possible.

Either camera can be reset to several pre-defined viewpoints by selecting the appropriate toolbar button (Figure 4). These viewpoints include the Top, Front, and left Side (highlighted in red).

2.6. Views

Views can be used to store and retrieve various view state in the Results and to create animated tours of the model. For more information on using and creating views and tours, see Chapter 4.

2.7. Displaying Geometry Input

There are several geometry sets that may be available with Pathfinder and PyroSim/FDS results. When results are loaded, the available geometry sets are shown under the Scene Geometry group of the Navigation View.

By default, with the exception of the Pathfinder Navigation Mesh and Background Images, only one geometry set may be shown at a time. This can be changed in the Preferences dialog, by unchecking Scene Geometry→Only show one at a time. To go to the Preferences dialog, in the File menu select Preferences.

To switch between the geometry sets, either double-click the desired geometry set in the Navigation View or right-click it and select Show. The labels for geometry sets that are active become bold in the Navigation View.

The following geometry sets may be available for Pathfinder results:

The following geometry sets may be available for PyroSim/FDS results:

The default geometry set shown in the results depends on which results type (Pathfinder or FDS) was loaded first and which geometry sets are available. For the results type that is loaded first, the geometry is chosen by selecting the first available set as listed above for each type.

With the exception of the Nav Mesh, geometry data can be shown in several different modes. To change the mode, click the mode drop-down box in the main toolbar (Figure 5).

The following modes are available:

Rendering Modes

2.8. Viewing Multi-floor Problems

Some models are composed of several floors, causing each floor to obscure the one below it as shown in Figure 11. The Results application provides a variety of options for viewing the model such that building contents can be easily observed. One option is to view the model with the floors stacked vertically but separated by a settable distance. Another option is to view the model with the floors lying in the XY plane so that they can all be viewed from overhead. Both options allow a wall clip-height to be specified and for certain floors to be selectively shown or hidden.

Multi-floor layout options using the Pathfinder Getting Started model

To use any of the layout options, floors must first be defined. If the floors were defined in PyroSim or Pathfinder, they will carry through to the 3D visualization and no additional input is needed.

If they have not been defined or they need to be modified, this can be done as follows:

Floor Settings and Edit Floors dialogs

The Results application will partition the geometry among the floors such that the bottom floor contains all geometry from \(-{\infty}\) to the next floor’s location, the top floor contains all geometry from its location to \(+{\infty}\), and every other floor contains geometry from its location to the next floor’s location.

Once floors are defined, there are several ways to lay out the floors and clip the walls, which can all be done from the Floor Settings dialog. The Floor Layout controls how the floors are laid out in the view.

The following options are available:

To easily show all the floors again, either right-click on empty space in the scene view and choose Show All Floors or in the in the View menu, choose Show All Floors. The floors can also be shown again using the Floor Settings dialog.

2.9. Animation playback

To begin animation playback, press the play button at the bottom of the 3D View. As the animation is playing, the time slider will move, and the animation can be paused . The buttons and will move the time slider to the beginning and end, respectively. The buttons and will slow down and speed up the animation by factors of two. In addition, the playback can be looped by checking the Repeat button.

The status bar at the bottom of the screen shows information about the current navigation tool and about playback status.

2.10. Refreshing Results

Results can be viewed as a simulation is running, but they will only show the amount of time available at the last load or refresh. To refresh the results at any time, press F5 on the keyboard or select Refresh Results in the File menu. The current playback time will be restored after refreshing the results, making the refresh as seamless as possible. If the results are launched from PyroSim before the simulation is finished, the Results application will automatically refresh and come to the front of the screen when the simulation completes.

2.11. File Streaming

The Results application streams files from disk rather than loading the entire results files into memory. File streaming allows results to load quickly and enables very large results to be loaded even if there is limited system memory.

In order for file streaming to work well, the hard drive that contains the results data needs to be fast enough to load the results data at the desired playback speed. With some very large FDS results, however, even a fast disk may not be fast enough to stream the data.

These models may cause the results to stutter or pause intermittently during playback or when moving the time slider. In these extreme cases, the results can be loaded into memory.

To do so:

2.12. Controlling Drawing Detail/Speed

There are several options controlling the drawing quality and speed in the Results application, including level-of-detail rendering, hardware versus software rendering, and vertex buffers. Almost all of the options are chosen automatically depending on the capabilities reported by the graphics adapter (GPU).

To view the rendering options, in the File menu select Preferences. This will open the Preferences dialog. Next select the Rendering tab. At any time, the Max Quality button may be pressed to load settings that will give the highest quality image available, which are automatically loaded by default.

There are some cases where these settings can be problematic for the graphics adapter and can produce incorrect renderings, such as black geometry, incorrect fire, etc. If this is the case, pressing the Max Compatibility button will load settings that should work even on these problematic GPUs, at the expense of rendering quality and speed.

The following rendering options are available:

2.13. Skyboxes

One way to improve the visual appeal of a scene, especially if it is an outdoor area or has windows to the outside, is to add a skybox. A skybox is a specialized background with more interesting features, such as sky, clouds, the sun, mountains, cityscape, etc. It is simply an image or collection of images that are displayed as if they are infinitely far away.

These images are often generated from the real world using a 360° camera or generated with CG. The features of the background completely enclose the scene such that when the scene camera is rotated, the background rotates as well but if the camera moves, the skybox stays in place.

The Results application allows a skybox to be easily added to the scene for added visual appeal.

An example skybox is shown in Figure 23:

Skybox comparison

To add a skybox, in the View menu, click Edit Skybox. This will open the Edit Skybox Dialog as shown in Figure 25.

The following options are available for specifying a skybox:

These images look similar to the following:

Sometimes cubemap images are labelled as Min/Max XYZ faces. This can become confusing if the images are specified in a coordinate system where Y is up, as the Results applications treats the Z axis as up. To determine if the images are specified in an alternate coordinate system, find the bottom image. If it is labelled as Min Y, it is using a Y-is-up coordinate system. To enter these images, swap the Y and Z images when entering them into the Edit Skybox Dialog.

Once a skybox has been chosen, the following properties are available:

2.14. Creating Screenshots

A screenshot is a still image of the scene. The Results application can create a single screenshot or multiple screenshots from different views and playback times.

To create a screenshot or series of screenshots, perform the following:

The following options are available for screenshots:

2.14.2. Multiple

The Multiple creation method allows multiple screenshots to be created from several different playback times and views.

The following options are available:

Start Time

The first playback time at which to take a screenshot from each view.

End Time

No screenshots will be taken after this playback time.

Time Interval

The amount of playback time between screenshots.

Views

The views from which to take screenshots. Clicking the link will open the Select Views dialog as shown in Figure 29.

The Select Views dialog can be used to select which views the screenshots will be taken from. The list of views can be limited by unchecking the boxes next to the various filters at the bottom of the dialog.

When using the Multiple creation method, the screenshots are created in the following way: for each playback time between the start and end times using the time interval, a screenshot will be created for each selected view.

This means that there may be up to m*n screenshots taken, where m is the number of times between the start and end time, and n is the number of selected views. The actual number of screenshots may be fewer than this, as screenshots will only be taken for a tour if the playback time is inside the time range of the tour.

The names of the screenshots follow this format:

name_time_viewname.ext

Where name is the name of the screenshot as chosen when the screenshot dialog was opened, time is the playback time for the screenshot as an offset in seconds from the start of the results, viewname is the name of the view from which the screenshot was taken, and ext is the image extension. If <current view> is chosen as one of the views, _viewname is excluded from the file path.

time1 viewname1 viewname2
time2 viewname1 viewname3 viewname4
time3 viewname2
...

0.0 Top Front
30.0 \"Floor 0\" Left
120.0 Top

2.15. Creating Movies

Movies can be created from the Results application for playback on machines that do not have the Results application or for presentation purposes. Movies can be created in two different ways. One way is to create a high-quality movie that is rendered offline. The other is to create a lower-quality movie in real-time that allows the user to interact with the scene while the movie is recording.

3.1. Hardware Requirements

The following headsets have been verified to work with the Results:

It should, however, work with several other headsets, including all that are compatible with Steam VR and Oculus PC platforms, including the Oculus Rift S, HTC Vive Pro, Valve Index, Samsung Odyssey, etc.

The computer also needs a high-performance video card and processor. Typical VR computers tend to have the following specifications:

Many vendors supply VR-Ready machines as well.

3.2. Viewing VR

To use VR Mode in the Results, perform the following steps:

3.3. Limitations

There are some limitations to using VR mode:

3.4. VR Troubleshooting

4.1. Viewpoints

At any time, the state of the active camera can be saved to a view, including its position, orientation, and zoom. A viewpoint can be recalled later to view the scene from that perspective.

4.2. Camera Tours

The Results application provides the capability to create and view camera tours, which can be played back or recorded to video.

Tours are useful in the following scenarios:

Conceptually, camera tours consist of a number of viewpoints at different playback times, referred to as keyframes. When a tour is played back, the scene camera smoothly interpolates between viewpoints at the keyframes. Tours may repeat and can start at any time.

When a tour is active, the results playback time range is set to the time range of the tour (Section 2.3).

4.2.1. Tour Editor Dialog

Tour creation and editing is performed through the Tour Editor Dialog, as shown in Figure 35. The tour editor dialog allows various tour properties to be modified and allows keyframes to be added, removed, and modified.

While the tour editor dialog (Figure 35) is open, the scene camera will stop tracking with the tour. This is to allow positioning of the camera in order to add or edit keyframe positions. To preview changes made to the tour, click the Preview button at the bottom of the tour editor dialog. This will lock the scene camera back to the tour and begin playback at the current time. If the current time is outside the tour time or at the end of it, the playback time is changed to the beginning time of the tour. To end the preview, click End Preview. The scene camera will once again unlock, allowing changes to the keyframes.

While the tour editor dialog is open, clicking a keyframe in the table will also set the playback time of the results to that keyframe time and show the viewpoint of that keyframe in the 3D view. Similarly, changing the scene playback time using the time slider will automatically select the most recent keyframe in the table.

While the tour editor dialog is open, another view can be double-clicked in the navigation view to show the viewpoint of that view.

4.2.4. Editing a Camera Tour

There will be times when changes need to be made to a tour, such as the start time, camera position during a transition, adding a repeated section of the tour, etc. Tours can be edited in several ways.

To begin editing the tour, open the tour editor dialog in one of the following ways:

• In the navigation view, right-click the view with the tour, and click Edit tour. This will activate the view and open the tour editor dialog.
• With a tour active, in the 3D view, right-click empty space and select Edit tour. This will begin editing the tour in the active view.
• With a tour active, in the View menu, select Views and Tours→Edit tour. This will also begin editing the tour in the active view.

With the tour editor dialog open, several changes can be made, including the following:

4.2.4.1. Fix the viewpoint of a keyframe

Sometimes a keyframe doesn’t have quite the right orientation or camera position. This can be changed by doing the following:

1. Select the keyframe that needs to be updated in the Keyframes table.
2. Position the camera to the desired location.
3. Right-click the keyframe and select Record camera position.

4.2.4.2. Fix a viewpoint in the middle of the tour

Perhaps all the keyframes look correct, but there is a point in the tour when the camera does not look quite right. This can be fixed by doing the following:

1. Preview the tour.
2. Move the time slider to the time when the camera looks bad.
3. End the preview.
4. Adjust the camera until it looks correct.
5. Click the Add button in the tour editor dialog. This will insert a new keyframe at the current playback time.
6. Preview the tour again and make sure everything looks correct.

4.2.4.3. Delete a portion of the tour

A portion of the tour can be removed by deleting keyframes. To do so, select the keyframes and either press Delete on the keyboard or right-click the frames and select Remove.

4.2.4.4. Shift all or part of the tour to a new time

There might be scenarios where all or part of a tour needs to be moved to a different time. If the time of only one keyframe needs to be corrected, edit the time value directly in the Keyframes table. If all or a portion of the tour needs to be shifted:

1. In the Keyframes table, select the keyframes whose times you would like to shift.
2. Right-click the keyframes and select Shift Times. This will open the Shift Keyframes dialog as shown in Figure 36.
3. In the dialog, enter the new Time for the first of the selected keyframes or enter an Offset.
4. Click OK.

The selected keyframe times will be shifted by the specified amount.

4.2.4.5. Duplicate all or part of the entire tour

If you want to duplicate some or all of the tour so that the section will play again at another time within the same tour, perform the following:

1. Select the keyframes to be duplicated.
2. Right-click the keyframes and select Duplicate. This will open the Duplicate Keyframes dialog as shown in Figure 37.
3. The following options may be chosen to determine when the duplicated keyframes will take place:

   Insert at end of tour

   This will cause the duplicated keyframes to be inserted after the last keyframe of the tour. The Last keyframe delay specifies how much time there is between the last keyframe and the first duplicated keyframe.

   Insert at specific time

   This will cause the duplicated keyframes to be inserted at a specific time. If the chosen time is in the middle of the tour, the subsequent keyframes' times are shifted so that the first subsequent keyframe takes place after the last duplicated keyframe. The amount of time between the last duplicated keyframe and first subsequent keyframe is the same as the time between the last selected keyframe and its subsequent keyframe or 10 seconds if the last selected is also the last keyframe.

   Insert at end of the selected keyframes

   This will cause the duplicated keyframes to be inserted at the same time as the next unselected keyframe. The subsequent unselected keyframes' times are shifted the same way as when inserting at a specific time.

4.2.4.6. Hold a viewpoint for some duration in the middle of the tour

After creating a tour, it may be decided that the camera should remain stationary at a particular viewpoint for some length of time before moving on to the next keyframe. This can be done by duplicating the keyframe that should be held and selecting Insert at end of selected keyframe as described above.

The new keyframe will have the same viewpoint as the previous keyframe, which keeps the camera stationary before moving on to the next keyframe. While not completely necessary, it may also be desirable to set the old keyframe transition to Stationary to make it obvious in the keyframes table which keyframe is being held.

4.3. Section Boxes

A section box is a convex region defined by up to six planes and is used to limit the scope of visible geometry and results data. All data outside the box are clipped from view. An example of the clipping is shown in Figure 39.

Effect of a Section Box

NOTE: When viewing a section box with the floors of the model spread out, each floor is clipped by the intersection of the section box and the Z clipping planes of the floor. See Section 2.8 for more information on floors.

The active view’s section box can be disabled by going to the View menu and de-selecting Views and Tours→Enable Section Boxes.

4.3.1. Creating a section box

A section box can be created in several ways:

• In the navigation view, right-click a view that does not already have a section box and select Add section box. This will add a section box that encompasses all visible geometry.
• In the View menu select Add section box. This will add a section box to the active view if it does not already have one.
• In the 3D view, right-click in empty space and select Add section box. This will also add a section box to the active view.
• Select several geometric objects, right-click one of them, and select Add section box. If the active view does not already have a section box, one will be added that encompasses only the selection.

After a section box is added, the Section Box Dialog appears as shown in Figure 40.

While the section box dialog is open, the section box is displayed as a dashed outline of the region with translucent faces. The individual planes of the section box can be added and removed by checking and unchecking the box next to each plane.

4.4. Duplicating Views

With the exception of the default view, any view can be duplicated, including those from Pathfinder, PyroSim, or Smokeview. To duplicate a view or several views:

This will create a copy of each view. All duplicated views can be modified and deleted.

4.5. Views Files

Views made in Pathfinder, PyroSim, Smokeview, and Results versions 2019.1.0515 and prior are stored in several different files including the following:

Where modelname is the name of the originating Pathfinder, PyroSim, or FDS file.

4.6. Importing Views

Views can be imported into the results, for instance, from another results data set.

To do so:

The views are imported as editable results views into the current results visualization.

4.7. Following an Occupant

Results provides a special view mode to have the camera follow an occupant as they travel through the simulation. To activate this mode, select the desired occupant, and then either click the Follow Occupant button in the main toolbar or right-click the occupant and select Follow Occupant. The camera will remain behind the occupant as results are played back. Activating this view mode will deactivate other views and tours. To stop following the occupant, click the Stop Following Occupant button or right-click anywhere in the 3D view or navigation view and select Stop Following Occupant.

5.1. Dimensions

Dimensions may be added to a results visualization to annotate the length of features in the model or distances as shown in Figure 41. Dimensions may be shown or hidden by going to the View menu and selecting or deselecting Show Dimensions.

To draw a dimension, perform the following steps:

Dimensions may be selected and deleted from either the 3D view or the Navigation View under the Dimensions group.

Types of Dimension Offsets

5.2. Custom Labels

Another way to annotate results is to add custom labels as shown in Figure 46. Custom labels can be used to add any text to the model and can be added with or without a leader. Labels may be shown or hidden by going to the View menu and checking or unchecking Show Labels.

To create custom labels, perform the following steps:

As with dimensions, labels appear in the Navigation View under the Labels group and can be deleted or renamed if necessary.

6.1. Results Organization

Each FDS output may be split into multiple objects depending on how many meshes the object resides in. Figure 48 show an example model where there are multiple meshes. In this example, there are five slices of SOOT DENSITY at different locations. The slice at X=13.319 only goes through one mesh, so there is only one entry in the Navigation View. The slices, X=13.5 and Y=17.104, however, go through multiple meshes, so they have multiple entries in the Navigation View.

The hierarchy in this view makes it easy to activate an entire slice as it goes through multiple meshes or only activate the slice in one or more meshes. It also demonstrates how individual results objects have been divided among multiple meshes.

6.2. Activating Results

When an FDS results file is loaded, none of the results are visible. They must be selectively activated to be shown. To do so, in the Navigation View either right-click the desired results object and select Show or double-click the object. To deactivate the object, right click it and select Hide or double-click it.

Results objects can be activated or deactivated at any level in the hierarchy. For instance, in Figure 48, all SOOT DENSITY slices can be activated by double-clicking SOOT DENSITY in the navigation view. In addition, all SOOT DENSITY slices at X=13.5 can be activated by double-clicking X = 13.5000.

Note that only one FDS quantity can be active at a time. For instance, a TEMPERATURE slice may NOT be shown along with a SOOT DENSITY slice. You can, however, mix different result types as long as they are the same quantity. For instance, you can show a TEMPERATURE slice and a TEMPERATURE boundary. The exception to this rule is that 3D Smoke and Particles colored with the Default color can be shown in combination with any quantity. This is because these outputs have no associated quantity.

When an object is activated the Results application performs several actions:

6.3. Colorbars

Nearly all FDS and Pathfinder results data are colored with a colormap (exceptions include 3D Smoke, Particles viewed with the Default coloring, and some occupant coloring options). A colormap provides a way to map data values to a color that can be displayed on the screen. When a colormap is in use, it will be shown as a colorbar on the right side of the 3D View as shown in Figure 50. If both FDS Results and Pathfinder occupant contours are displayed at the same time, there may be multiple colorbars displayed at once.

The colorbar shows the colormap as well as which data values are mapped to the colors. At the top, it also shows an abbreviation of the quantity and the quantity’s unit in parentheses. In Figure 50, the label "temp" corresponds with the quantity, TEMPERATURE, and the unit is C for degrees Celsius.

6.3.1. Highlight Region

The colorbar can be left-clicked to add a highlight region. A highlight region changes all of the values of a limited range to a specific color to make it easier to see as shown in Figure 51. By default, a highlight region covers 5% of the data values surrounding the clicked location on the colorbar (2.5% above and 2.5% below). The size of the region can be changed by using the scroll wheel on the mouse. In addition, the highlight region can be removed by right-clicking the colorbar. The highlight region can also be moved by clicking and dragging the left mouse button on the colorbar.

More fine-grained control over the colorbar can be achieved by double-clicking the colorbar, which will bring up a dialog to edit the colorbar properties as described in Section 6.3.2.

6.3.2. Colorbar Properties

Colorbar properties are edited in either the FDS Preferences dialog as shown in Figure 52 or the Occupant Contour dialog as shown in Figure 92. Either dialog can be reached by double-clicking the colorbar.

Data Range

Specifies the data range for mapping results data values to colors in the colormap. The Minimum Value is mapped to the first (bottom) color in the colormap. The Maximum Value is mapped to the last (top) color in the colormap. Colors in-between are mapped linearly between the first and last colors. Values outside this range are clamped to the first or last colors. There are several preset Data Range values depending on the active results:

Percentile (rounded)

When the results are loaded, a histogram is created from the data. The middle 98% of all data values over all time are rounded and then used for the minimum and maximum values of the data range.

Percentile

The middle 98% of all data values are used for the data range.

Global (rounded)

When the results are loaded, the absolute minimum and maximum data values are calculated. These values are rounded and used for data range.

Global

The absolute minimum and maximum data values for the active results are used for the data range.

Custom

Allows the user to type in the desired data range.

Truncate Data

Optionally allows data that falls outside a set range to be hidden from view as shown in Truncated colorbar option.

Hide below

Specifies the lower bound for the truncation range. All data below this value are hidden from view.

Hide above

Specifies the upper bound for the truncation range. All data above this value are hidden from view.

Color Source

Specifies the source of the colors. This can be one of the following values:

Colormap

Uses a pre-defined colormap that is a sequence of varying colors.

Constant Color

A single color is used for all data. This is usually used in combination with a Gradient Opacity Source.

Colormap

The name of the colormap to use when the Color Source is set to Colormap.

Invert Colors

Whether to reverse the colors in the colormap when the Color Source is set to Colormap.

Color

The color to use when the Color Source is set to Constant Color.

Opacity Source

Specifies the source of opacity values. Opacity controls how opaque results are.

Constant

The opacity values are always the same.

Gradient

A gradient function will be used to linearly map the data values to opacity values. This can be used to highlight either the lower or upper range of the results data as the other end will be more translucent.

Feather Below

Fades the lowest x% of contour values from opaque to transparent so that the underlying geometry or navigation mesh may be seen. Values above the threshold are opaque. For example, if the data range is 0-10, and the Feather Threshold is 25%, values below 0 will be transparent, values in the range 0-2.5 will increase in opacity until they are opaque at 2.5, and all values above 2.5 will be opaque.

Feather Above

Fades the highest x% of contour values from opaque to transparent so that the underlying geometry or navigation mesh may be seen. Values below the threshold are opaque.

Feather Threshold

The threshold for fading the values.

Opacity

Specifies how opaque the results are when the Opacity Source is set to Constant.

Opacity at Minimum

The opacity at the Minimum Value as specified in the Data Range. This can be any value and does NOT have to lie between 0 and 100%.

Opacity at Maximum

The opacity at the Maximum Value as specified in the Data Range. This can be any value and does NOT have to lie between 0 and 100%.

Number of Colors

Specifies how many samples should be taken from the colormap to generate the final color function. The samples are taken at evenly-spaced intervals. Using a value of 256 will create a smooth gradient of colors. Using a low value, such as 8, will create discrete colors, leaving visible color bands in the visualization.

Enable Highlight Color

Enables the highlight region as discussed in Section 6.3.1.

Highlight Value

The center value of the highlight region.

Highlight Width

The size of the highlight region. Half of this will be above the Highlight Value and half will be below.

Highlight Color

The color of the highlighted values.

Truncated colorbar option

6.4. Global FDS Properties

There is a set of global properties for FDS results that controls how the results are presented, including the colorbar properties, time offsets, and interpolation. These settings are located in the FDS Preferences dialog. To open this dialog, either double-click the colorbar if results are already active or under the Analysis menu, select FDS Preferences. The FDS Preference dialog is shown in Figure 52.

In addition to the colorbar properties explained in Section 6.3.2, the following options are available in the FDS Preferences dialog:

2D slices obscure smoke option

6.5. 3D Smoke and Fire

By default, all FDS simulations that contain fire will output two s3d files for each mesh. Together these files can be viewed in the Results application as smoke and fire as shown in Figure 57. When these files are present, the Results application will show a 3D Smoke group in the Navigation View. In the 3D Smoke group, SOOT MASS FRACTION represents the smoke information and HRRPUV (heat release rate per unit volume) represents the fire information.

The smoke and fire visualization is merely an approximation of the actual smoke and fire.

The visualization has the following limitations:

There are a number of properties that affect the appearance of the smoke and fire. These properties can be edited by right-clicking the 3D Smoke group in the Navigation View and selecting Properties. This will show the Smoke3D Properties dialog in Figure 58.

Comparison of smoke/fire presets with smoke opacity set to 25%

6.6. 3D Slices

In FDS, a 3D slice represents an animated volumetric region that contains data at every intersecting cell for a single gas-phase quantity such as TEMPERATURE or SOOT DENSITY. There can be any number of 3D slices of the gas-phase quantities.

When an FDS simulation contains 3D slices, they will appear under the 3D Slices group in the Navigation View. The hierarchy appears in the Navigation View as FDS Results→3D Slices→Quantity→Mesh.

For more information on the visualization capabilities of 3D slices, refer to Section 6.8.

6.7. Plot3D

FDS has the capability of creating Plot3D files. Like 3D slices, a Plot3D file contains 3D data sets. There are a few key differences between the file format for Plot3D and 3D slices:

Despite the differences, the Results application hides these details from the user and presents Plot3D output exactly like 3D slices, in that each quantity is represented as a separate object in the Navigation View. In addition, the Results application will treat all of the Plot3D files of a given quantity as if they were one animated file.

When an FDS simulation contains Plot3D data, they will appear under the in the Navigation View with this hierarchy: FDS Results→Plot3D→Quantity→Mesh.

For more information on the visualization capabilities of Plot3D, refer to Section 6.8 below.

6.8. Data3D

Both Plot3D and 3D slice files contain 3D datasets (Data3D) of gas-phase quantities. Though they require fairly significant storage space, Data3D are perhaps the most flexible output formats from FDS and can be visualized in several ways.

They can be viewed directly using volumetric rendering, and arbitrary isosurfaces, slices, and points be created from them in the Results application without being required to re-run the FDS simulation.

6.8.1. Data3D Volumetric Rendering

Volumetric rendering of a Data3D object enables viewing it as a 3D form as if it was a cloud of colored gas as shown in Figure 62.

In order to understand the shape and depth of the volume, portions of the dataset must be made translucent.

By default, the minimum value in the data range (Section 6.4) has an opacity of 0% making the lower values completely transparent. The maximum value in the data range has an opacity of 75%. The range of opacity values can be changed by either choosing the constant opacity value or by choosing a Gradiant Opacity Source in the FDS Preferences dialog and setting the desired opacity mapping.

Volumetric renderings are created similarly to fire and smoke. To change their quality, in the Navigation View expand either 3D Slices or Plot3D, right-click one of the quantities, and select Properties. This will open the Data3D Properties dialog as shown in Figure 63.

When using hardware shaders, the Sample Factor controls the number of samples taken from the data set for each view ray. When using the compatibility renderer, the Sample Factor controls the number of slices through the 3d texture. Increasing this value will generally increase the quality of the volumetric rendering at the expense of rendering speed.

6.8.2. Data3D Points

From Data3D objects, any number of points can be created that are colored according to the colorbar and Data3D values as shown in Figure 64. Data3D points can also be used to export time-series data and show plot from the Data3D object as explained in Chapter 8 and Chapter 9.

To create a Data3D point:

1. In the Navigation View, expand the appropriate Data3D group (3D Slices or Plot3D).
2. Right-click either Points or one of the quantities.
3. Select Add point. The Add Point dialog will open as shown in Figure 65.

4. Choose the desired quantity and location of the point and click OK. The point will be added under the Points group.

To delete a Data3D point, select it in the Navigation View and press the DELETE key.

6.8.3. Data3D Slices

Arbitrary 2D slices can also be created from Data3D objects without rerunning the simulation. These slices do not have the same restrictions as regular FDS slices in that they do not have to be axis-aligned. Instead, they can be in any plane. Figure 66 shows a 2D slice created from a 3D slice.

To add a Data3D slice:

1. In the Navigation View, expand the appropriate Data3D group (3D Slices or Plot3D).
2. Right-click either Slices or one of the quantities.
3. Select Add slice. The Add Slice dialog will open as shown in Figure 67.
4. Choose the desired quantity and enter the slice information and click OK. The slice will be added under the Slices group.

When Data3D slices are active, they can be quickly moved along their normal in the Quick Settings.

To delete a Data3D slice, select it in the Navigation View and press the DELETE key.

6.8.4. Data3D Isosurfaces

Arbitrary 3D isosurfaces can also be created from Data3D objects without rerunning the simulation. An isosurface shows the contour of a gas-phase quantity at a specific value. Some isosurfaces created from a 3D slice are shown in Figure 68.

To add a Data3D isosurface:

1. In the Navigation View, expand the appropriate Data3D group (3D Slices or Plot3D).
2. Right-click either Isosurfaces or one of the quantities.
3. Select Add isosurface. The Add Isosurface dialog will open as shown in add-isosurface-dialog.
4. Choose the desired quantity and enter the isosurfaces value. The isosurface will be added under the Isosurfaces group.

If only one Data3D isosurfaces is active, its value can be quickly changed in the Quick Settings.

To delete a Data3D isosurface, select it in the Navigation View and press the DELETE key.

6.9. Isosurfaces

FDS supports the generation of animated 3D isosurfaces. An isosurface shows the contour of a gas-phase quantity at a specific value, as shown in Figure 70.

Unlike Data3D isosurfaces, FDS isosurfaces cannot be added or changed in the Results application. Instead, they must be specified in the FDS input file or in PyroSim.

When an FDS simulation contains isosurfaces, they will appear under the Isosurface group in the Navigation View. The hierarchy appears in the Navigation View as FDS Results→Isosurfaces →Quantity→Value→Mesh.

6.10. 2D Slices

FDS also supports the generation of animated 2D slices. A 2D slice shows the values of a gas-phase quantity in a single plane as shown in Figure 71.

Unlike Data3D slices, FDS 2D slices cannot be added or changed in the Results application. Instead, they must be specified in the FDS input file or in PyroSim.

When an FDS simulation contains 2D slices, they will appear under the 2D Slices group in the Navigation View. The hierarchy appears in the Navigation View as FDS Results→2D Slices →Quantity→Slice Location→Mesh.

6.11. 2D Slice Vectors

In FDS, 2D slices may optionally be created with the VECTORS option. When this option is enabled, FDS creates three additional 2D slice files containing the U,V,W coordinates of the air velocity. The Results application can combine these additional slice results to create 2D Slice Vectors.

2D Slice Vectors show the velocity of the air as vectors that point in the direction of the air flow and are scaled by the air speed. The velocity and color of each vector is determined at the center of the vector. Figure 72 shows 2D slice vectors that are colored by TEMPERATURE.

When an FDS simulation contains 2D slice vectors, they will appear under the 2D Slice Vectors group in the Navigation View. The hierarchy appears in the Navigation View as FDS Results→2D Slice Vectors →Quantity→Slice Location→Mesh.

To change the magnitude or density of the slice vectors, in the Navigation View, right-click the desired 2D slice vectors and click Properties. The Slice Vector Properties dialog will open as shown in Figure 73.

These options are also available in the Quick Settings when 2D slice vectors are active.

6.12. Boundaries

Boundaries show solid-phase and some gas-phase data at the boundaries of solid surfaces as shown in Figure 74.

When an FDS simulation contains boundaries, they will appear under the Boundaries group in the Navigation View. The hierarchy appears in the Navigation View as FDS Results→Boundaries →Quantity→Mesh.

The colors of the boundaries are blended with those of the active geometry set. The amount of blending can be controlled with the Opacity setting in the FDS Preferences dialog (Section 6.4). The default opacity setting of 75% causes 75% of the color to come from the boundary and 25% from the geometry set. Setting this value to 100% would disable blending and only show the boundary colors. In addition, a gradient opacity function can be used to highlight specific boundary values as shown in Figure 75.

6.12.1. Realistic Visualization of Soot Deposition

FDS supports the simulation of aerosol deposition, which can be used to track the deposition of various species on the boundaries of obstructions, such as soot gathering on walls and ceilings. FDS stores the output information in boundary files. By setting specific color parameters, the Results application can visualization soot deposition fairly realistically as shown in Figure 76.

To recreate this visualization, perform the following:

1. In the Navigation View, under the FDS Results→Boundaries group, activate SOOT SURFACE DEPOSITION.
2. In the Analysis menu, select FDS Preferences to open the FDS Preferences dialog.
3. Set Color Source to Constant Color.
4. Set Color to the soot color (e.g. black).
5. Set Opacity Source to Gradient.
6. Set Opacity at Minimum to 0% and Opacity at Maximum to 100%.
7. Adjust the Maximum Value of the data range to be the value required for the soot to look completely opaque on a surface assuming complete coverage of the surface.
8. Click OK.

6.13. Particles

FDS supports the injection of particles in a simulation. Particles can be used to trace air flow or to represent liquids, such as water or fuel. There can be several classes of particles in one simulation. Figure 77 shows tracer particles flowing through the model.

When an FDS simulation contains particles, they are found in the Navigation View and are organized as follows: FDS Results→Particles→Particle Class→Mesh.

By default, particles appear as dots and are a single color, but they may also be visualized with trails that show the particle motion. In addition, they may be colored by various particle quantities, if enabled in PyroSim or the FDS input file. To change the particle properties, in the Navigation View, right-click the desired particle class and select Properties. This will open the Particle Property Dialog as shown in Figure 78.

Both the Trail Time and Particle Color may also be changed in the Quick Settings for the active particles.

7.1. Displaying Occupants

Occupants can be displayed in several ways. They can be shown as simple shapes, as realistic people, or as the artist’s wood mannequin as shown below.

All display options are found under the View→Occupant Display menu. Occupants can be displayed as follows:

Occupant Display options

7.2. Occupant Coloring

Occupants can be colored using several options found in the View→Occupant Color menu. In Figure 84, you can see occupants colored using a density occupant contour. Occupant coloring also affects the color of occupant paths, if enabled (see Section 7.4).

The following options are available:

7.3. Selecting Occupants

Occupants can be selected for tracking purposes by clicking on the occupant. When selected, the occupant and their path (if displayed) will turn yellow. Multiple occupants can be selected by holding CTRL when clicking them. They can be de-selected by clicking anywhere else in the model.

7.4. Viewing occupant paths

Occupant paths may be enabled to help visualize flow in an evacuation as shown in Figure 85. They can be shown by checking Show Occupant Paths in the View menu. When paths are enabled, each occupant’s path will be drawn from the time they entered the simulation to the current playing time. Paths are colored according to the current Occupant Color option as defined in Section 7.2. Each point on the path displays the color of the occupant when they were at that location, which allows a single path to have multiple colors. This can be seen in Figure 85 as the Occupant Color is set to By Occupant Speed.

7.5. Occupant Contours/Heat Maps

Pathfinder supports the visualization of dynamic occupant data on the floor areas of the model as shown in Figure 86. Referred to as occupant contours or heat maps, this animated data can give a qualitative visualization of the model’s performance.

Pathfinder supports the visualization of several types of occupant contours, including the following:

In addition to the basic contours, Pathfinder also provides the ability to filter any contour as follows:

The ability to filter any contour gives the user a great deal of flexibility in visualizing contours. For instance, a contour could be created that displays the maximum average density. The averaging filter would act as a low-pass filter that reduces high-density peaks that may be short lived. The maximum filter would then be used to find the maximum of this smoothed data. This would be created by adding an average filter to the density contour and then adding a maximum filter to this averaging filter.

7.5.2. Adding Contour Filters

Contour filters can be added at any time in one of two ways:

• On the Analysis menu, select New contour filter or
• In the navigation menu, right-click the contour to filter and select Add filter.

This will show the New Filtered Occupant Contour dialog as shown in Figure 87. Select the desired properties and press OK to create the filter and show its properties dialog.

Contour

The contour that will be filtered (any changes to this contour will also affect the filtered contour).

Filter

The filter to apply to the contour.

7.5.5. Global Contour Properties

There are several global properties that control how each contour is generated and displayed.

To modify these properties, right-click the "Occupant Contours" group in the navigation view as shown in Figure 88, and select Properties.

This will show the Occupant Contours Properties dialog as shown in Figure 89.

Maximum Triangle Area

This controls the quality of the generated contours. Smaller values result in higher quality contours at the expense of larger optimization files and longer calculation times. Specifically, this controls the resolution of the underlying computation mesh for the contours. The effect of this parameter can be seen in Figure 90 and Figure 91.

Match results time step

Selecting this causes the contours to be generated at the same frequency as the Pathfinder results. This provides the most time accuracy but also takes the longest to generate and creates the largest files.

Specify time step

Allows the contour time step to be specified. Values higher than the time step of the Pathfinder results will decrease the time accuracy of the generated contours but will also decrease the calculation time and disk space requirements for the contour files. The specified time step will be rounded to the nearest multiple of the Pathfinder results time step.

Effect of contour mesh resolution

7.5.6. Individual Contour Properties

Each contour also contains a set of properties that control the generation of the contour as well as its visualization. To set the properties of a contour, right-click the contour in the navigation view and select Properties. This will show the properties dialog for that contour.

Each contour has a potentially different set of properties. The properties dialog for density is shown in Figure 92.

The following is composite list of all contour properties that control the creation of the contours:

Name

The name displayed in the navigation view for the contour.

Density Radius

Controls creation of the density contour. This radius determines the area in which occupants are searched on the solution mesh to determine density.

Influence Radius

Controls the size of the area that each occupant’s value has on the contour. The value is tapered from the full value where the occupant exists down to zero at this radius. The effect of this property is shown in Figure 93 and Figure 94.

Contour Type

Specifies the type of contour. Contours may either be Animated or Snapshots. If they are animated, their values will change as results are played back. If they are snapshots, however, they will always display the same contour value as calculated at a particular time or time range.

Limit Time Interval

For contours that require a time range, such as Average and Maximum filters and Usage [Accumulated], this option limits the time range to a fixed interval.

• If this option is checked for an animated contour, the time interval is trailing. For instance, if this is checked and a time interval of 30 s is entered for an average density contour, the average will only be calculated for the trailing 30 seconds of density data at each time step. So at t=120s, the average is calculated over the time range of [90,120] s. If this option is left unchecked, the calculation will take place over the entire time range preceding each time step. So at t=120s, the time range would be [0,120] s.
• If this option is checked for contour snapshots, the time interval is explicitly specified using Minimum Time and Maximum Time. If this option is unchecked, the time interval is set to the entire results playback time. So for instance, if there is currently 400 s of results data available, the time interval will be [0,400] s.

Snapshot Time

For contour snapshots, this specifies the calculation time that will be displayed during playback.

In addition to the above properties, colorbar settings can also be specified as described in Section 6.3 with the following additional considerations:

• For Level of Service contours, the Colormap property controls the floor type, which is one of Queuing, Stairway, or Walkway.
• Changing one of the colorbar properties will NOT invalidate contour optimization files.

Effect of influence radius on contours

7.5.9. Level of Service (LOS)

When using the Level of Service (LOS) contour, the colors are defined as follows:

Color - LOS	Walking	Queueing	Stairs
- A	35 ft2 (3.3 m2) per person or greater	13 ft2 (1.2 m2) per person or greater	20 ft2 (1.9 m2) per person or greater
- B	25 ft2 (2.3 m2)-35 ft2 per person	10 ft2 (.93 m2)-13 ft2 per person	15 ft2 (1.4 m2)-20 ft2 per person
- C	15 ft2 (1.4 m2)-25 ft2 per person	7 ft2 (.65 m2)-10 ft2 per person	10 ft2 (.93 m2)-15 ft2 per person
- D	10 ft2 (0.93 m2)-15 ft2 per person	3 ft2 (0.28 m2)-7 ft2 per person	7 ft2 (0.65 m2)-10 ft2 per person
- E	5 ft2 (0.46 m2)-10 ft2 per person	2 ft2 (0.19 m2)-3 ft2 per person	4 ft2 (0.37 m2)-7 ft2 per person
- F	5 ft2 (0.46 m2) per person or less	2 ft2 (0.19 m2) per person or less	4 ft2 (0.37 m2) per person or less

10.1. Occupant Contours

The Results application provides some post-processing capabilities, including the ability to generate contours that show dynamic occupant data overlaid on the navigation mesh or imported geometry as shown in Figure 96.

Contours can either be calculated as results are played back or can be optimized and stored on disk for later retrieval. Optimization is discussed further in the User Manual. The calculation of the contours is described in this guide.

Contours are calculated using a sub-divided version of the navigation mesh as seen in Figure 98.

Navigation Mesh vs. Occupant Contour Mesh

Contour values are calculated at the vertices of the triangles in the contour mesh and are linearly interpolated across triangles to produce the shading. The contour mesh is used only to display occupant contours and is independent from the navigation mesh used during the simulation. The spatial resolution of the contour mesh as well as the update frequency can be controlled using the Occupant Contours Properties dialog. Smaller values for space and time resolution offer smoother contours at the cost of greater calculation time and memory requirements.

Frames of contour data are produced throughout time depending on both the Pathfinder results data frames and the time step specified in the Occupant Contours Properties dialog as discussed in the User Manual. Each contour frame lines up in time with a frame of occupant animation data, though there does not have to be a one-to-one correspondence. This ensures that contour data is only produced when occupants are at known positions rather than interpolated positions. To view contour data at times between contour frames, the data is linearly interpolated between frames.

11.1. Floating License Server Problems

The floating license server provides an administration web service that can assist with diagnosing many floating license problems. If the license server is installed on the local machine, the license administration server can be accessed at the following web address: http://localhost:5054

If the license server is installed on a remote machine, replace localhost with the name of the remote machine (i.e. the host name of the floating license server).

Once you have opened the Reprise License Server Administration page, you can use the Status commands to attempt to debug the license server problem yourself, or you can send a diagnostic report to support@thunderheadeng.com for assistance.

To generate a diagnostic report:

11.2. Video Display Problems

The Results application utilizes several advanced graphics card features in order to provide accelerated display of results. If you experience crashes or problems with display, you should first make sure your video card drivers are up-to-date. If they are, there may be some rendering options that can be turned off in the preferences at the expense of decreased fidelity or rendering speed.

If you encounter these problems, please let us know the make/model of your video card and what video driver you are using. This will help us improve our software and increase compatibility.

11.3. Stuttering FDS Results

If FDS results, such as fire and smoke, stutter or pause frequently during playback, this may be because the results files are too large to stream. See Section 2.11 for more information on combatting this problem.

11.4. Unresponsive Results

When results are streaming from disk (Section 2.11), they require a connection to the file on disk. If the result files are on a remote machine, there is a possibility that the files can become disconnected from the Results application. In this case, the application may become frozen as it tries to read more data from the disconnected disk. This is usually caused by stability issues with the network.

The current remedy for this problem is to copy the results to the local machine to ensure a more reliable connection with the Results application.

11.5. Known Issues

There are some known issues with the Results. Some of these issues may be fixed in future releases, while others may be deemed non-critical with no plan for a fix.

11.6. Contacting Technical Support

If you need assistance, or wish to provide feedback about any of our products, contact support@thunderheadeng.com