Description

The collapsible Create Point Cloud frame provides tools allowing you to capture a set of rendered cells and use data from those cells to create a point cloud source. This cloud source can later be used for automated grid refinement, with particular focus on remediation of issues in donor cell matching of overset grids.

In order to use the features of this command frame, there must be one or more cells rendered in the Display window via the Color Bar visibility controls, via a filter created using the tools in the Filters tab, displayed examine cuts created using the Cuts tab, or via Cell Type rendering.

While the Cloud Source command frame is active (see below), all rendered cells are demoted to points representing the source cloud points which will be created. Note that this command is modal, therefore no other features of the Examine command will be available while this frame is checked open.

The collapsible Create Point Cloud frame provides tools to create a cloud of source points from a set of rendered cells.

The Spacing Type frame gives two options: Constant and General. The Constant option will create a source point cloud with the same spacing and decay at every point. On the other hand, the General option will create a source point cloud with varying spacing at each point.

The Constant Values frame is only visible when the Spacing Type is set to Constant (left image above). The frame contains fields for the Spacing and Decay with checkboxes for each to use the current default value.

The General Values frame is only visible when the Spacing Type is set to General (right image above). The frame contains two options for setting the Spacing and a field for the Decay with a checkbox to use the current default value. The two Spacing options are Average Edge Length and Current Function Value. The Average Edge Length option will compute an average length scale from the local cell and apply that to the current source point. The Current Function Value option will take the actual diagnostic values for length based measures. This option will not be available for functions that are not based on a length scale.

Note that any time overset object points are selected, for instance displayed fringe points, the Average Edge Length option will always be used for those points.

Once all settings are made, use the Create command to have a new source saved. In the figure below you can see in the List panel a newly created source generated using this Create Point Cloud feature. To distinguish these sources from other types, for instance created using the Draw Shapes command, these sources will have a default base name of "cloud".

New Source Point Cloud in the List Panel
Source cloud objects will use a default base name of "cloud".

Demonstration