Visualization of Particles
The computed particle trajectories can be loaded directly by clicking Load Particles. In the example shown here 10,000 simulated particles were loaded.
The structure model with the particles at their start position appears in the Visualization area of the GeoDict GUI. In the Visualization panel, directly above it, parameters for the visualization of the particles during the transport simulation are selectable under the Particles tab.
Sliders for Time and Speed Ratio control the visualization of particle movement. Moving the slider or directly entering a Time allows displaying the particles at a particular point in time. The Speed Ratio controls the visualization speed by entering values directly or by moving the slider. Low values of Speed Ratio result in the transport process being shown in slow motion, whereas high values lead to faster motion.
The animation of the particles starts by clicking Play. The Time slider does not return to zero when the animation has finished and has to be set to the initial value to restart the animation. Checking Loop makes the animation play endlessly. Checking Short Time adapts the visualization Time to the period when the majority of particles move. This option cuts off the final part of a simulation where only a few particles move at probably very low velocities and no changes are visible.
The Particles and Trajectories pull-down menus can be set to:
- None to fade out all particles.
- Filtered to show only the particles that remain attached to the solid.
- Not Filtered to show only the particles that went through the structure.
- Time Out to display only particles that were still moving at the end of the simulation.
- All to show all particles.
- Custom to define custom settings. This option is only available for the particle visualization.
Sometimes it is useful to switch off the visualization of the structure by selecting View in the menu bar and uncheck Structure or to uncheck the Structure tab above the Visualization panel. The structure model is still present, but not visible.
Particle visualization is identical in the modules FilterDict and AddiDict. However, since the functions implemented in AddiDict and FilterDict are not completely identical, some of the options available have no effect or are not useful for AddiDict result visualization.
In AddiDict simulations, often no particles are filtered, such that the best visualization option is to choose Custom. However, if particles stick to a solid or porous material due to the collision model, they are shown as filtered ones. If Custom is chosen for the visualization of the particles, user-defined visualization settings can be defined by clicking the Edit Custom button. Clicking Add Selection generates Selection 1. Clicking at the left of Selection 1 opens the options for custom particles selection. Parameters for all these options are accessed by clicking on their symbol. It is possible to add several selections by clicking the Add Selection button. This allows to plot different selections of particles (for example, by ID Selection or by Type ID Selection, etc.) in different colors. Selections can be removed by clicking the button Remove on the right of a selection.
The following is an example of the visualization obtained by choosing the indicated settings in the Custom Particle Selection dialog. The visualization of the structure has been turned off as indicated here. The visualization area shows the domain and, in it, the trajectory of the particle with ID 100 going through the structure.
Creating Videos of the Particle Movement
The visualization of the particles’ movement can be saved as a movie in MP4 or MKV format when selecting File → Save Video as or clicking the icon in the toolbar. In the Create Video dialog, click Generate Video for Particle Animation in the tab 3D.
In the Export Video dialog, define a Result File Name, select the Video Format (mp4, mkv or Images) and the Image Resolution. Set the value for the number of Frames per Second. Check Keep Images if the individual frames should be saved and not only the complete video. Unroll as Python is grayed out for Particle Animations, since this video preset cannot be edited directly in the Video Editor dialog or in the Edit Video Preset dialog. However, the Python script for this video preset can be found in the GeoDict settings folder and can be edited with a text editor.
Clicking Run opens the Video Generation dialog to select the Seconds Per Batch in seconds. This again is a FilterDict-only option. In AddiDict only one batch is computed, i.e., the number in seconds per batch entered here defines the complete length of the video. Clicking OK activates the creation of the video with the parameters set in the visualization area.
More details about creating videos with GeoDict can be found in the Create Videos user guide.
