How to Change the Range on the Legend Bar?

Question

How to adjust the legend range with custom maximum and minimum values?

Solution – Post-processor

By default in SimScale’s post-processor, the maximum and minimum range of the legend is set automatically, based on the biggest and smallest cell value of the selected parameter in the whole computational domain.

To showcase the legend customization workflows, we will inspect the results of the Internal Thermal Comfort of a Car tutorial. In this project, the largest velocity values are observed on the vents, which act as inlets.

In case we are interested in analyzing the velocity field on a cutting plane away from the vents, the default velocity range may not be the most insightful configuration. The image below shows the results with the default velocity range, resulting in most of the cutting plane being blue:

Based on the cutting plane above, one option to improve the visualization is to reduce the upper bound of the legend bar. Both the upper and lower thresholds can be edited by clicking on them and inputting new values of interest:

Furthermore, you can also slide the two arrows under the scale to adjust the coloring dynamically:

Please note that after changing the legend ranges manually, the new bounds will persist if you:

• Create new filters
• Exit and re-load the post-processor
• Play an animation
• Hide or unhide parts

To scale the legend back to the default settings, you can right-click on the legend bar and select ‘Scale to full range’:

Solution – Mesh Quality

The mesh quality viewer is based on an older version of the post-processor, where the user interface slightly differs from the main post-processor.

As a default, the maximum and minimum range of the legend is set automatically, based on the biggest and smallest cell value of the selected parameter in the whole domain.

In the following example, the Non-Orthogonality of the cells at the surfaces of the room is much higher than in the volume of the room. Therefore, it is difficult to make out cells with a very high Non-Orthogonality value.

To edit the legend, start by left-clicking on the legend. By default, you will see that the Range mode is set to All parts automatic range.

To change upper and lower bounds, set All parts automatic range to ‘Manual’, and adjust the Min and Max values until you obtain a better visualization.

For more details please visit the dedicated page on mesh quality evaluation.