EleMetric Histogram Tool
EnSight includes a calculator function called "EleMetric". This calculates one of nearly 30 Element Metrics on the selected parts in the domain. Currently, the Element Metrics follow the specifications referenced in the Sandia Verdict Library. Reference: C. J. Stimpson, C. D. Ernst, P. Knupp, P. P. Pebay, & D. Thompson, The Verdict Library Reference Manual, May 8, 2007.
This calculator function is powerful, but can be overwhelming for users who are trying to gather a series of mesh quality evaluations. There are many options to the calculator function, and not all of the functions make sense for all element types, and determining which to run can be a length process. In addition, this only creates a scalar variable, while users evaluating the grid quality typically also want some type of histogram of distribution of the quality variable. So, a wrapper Python Tool was developed around this utility to make this more useful and directly accessible by users in evaluating their grid. This Tool (formally known as elemetric3.py) is called "elemetric_histogram.py" and has the following capabilities:
1. It pops up a short GUI asking for the following:
a. whether to use the currently selected parts, or all of the parts.
b. how many bins to use in the generation of the histogram (default is 20).
c. Options to either write text output for the histogram and/or write queries for plotting.
2. The routine then figures out which element types exist within the parts which to operate on. With this element type list, the routine then chooses ONLY the EleMetric routines which apply to the grid element types in question.
3. The routine then creates a series of variables (with appropriate names) for all of the appropriate EleMetric variables. It also groups all of these variables into a new category of variables "Ele_Metric_Vars".
4. The routine then performs a "histogram" operation on all of those variables, and writes out a text file "EleMetric_Histogram.txt" containing the histogram information for all of the variables in question.
5. The routine then pipes this histogram information into EnSight's Query functions so that users can plot the histogram information.
The routine can downloaded via the Package Manager (EleMetric Function).