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EnSight 10 Basic Training Exercises

Exercise 1: Color the Comanche helicopter

1. Start EnSight 10 and press the Cancel button on the Welcome screen
2. Click on File -> Open and select the Simple Interface (see the image below on the left)
3. Set the File Type to Wavefront OBJ (at the end of the list) and go to the ../EnSight 10 Training/
Exercises/EnSight Basic Exercises/Exercise 1 - Comanche/Comanche.obj (see the image below
on the left)

4. Select each part or groups of parts and click the Color Wheel icon on the Quick Edit Menu
to change the color, shading type and opacity if needed (see the image above on the right)
5. Click the More button under the color swatches and color the body of the Comanche with a
military green color; for instance Red = 17, Green = 28 and Blue = 17
6. Set the opacity of the cockpit glass to 0.65 and color it with a medium gray color
7. Color the 2 seats with a tan color; for instance Red = 140, Green = 120 and Blue = 60
8. The end result should look like the Comanche pictured here

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Exercise 2: Create streamlines, particle traces and a clip plane around the Chevrolet Traverse SUV

1. Click on File -> Open and click the OK button on the New Case menu and keep the default of
Replace Currently Loaded Data (see the image below on the left); select the Simple Interface
again

2. Set the File Type to Case and go to the ../EnSight 10 Training/Exercises/EnSight Basic
Exercises/Exercise 2 - GM Traverse/gmt561-psd-drag.case

3. Hide parts 1-9 and 307-311 by either clicking the eye icon or by right clicking and selecting
Hide (see the image above on the right)
4. Rotate the car so the Z-axis is pointing up and fit the geometry to the viewport by clicking the
icon on the Quick Settings toolbar
5. Switch on the Line Tool by clicking on the Line Tool icon ; you probably won't see the Line
Tool because it's hidden inside of the car
 Go to the Parts List and right click on any part and click Part Select -> Visible, this selects
all the visible parts in the model

 Click on the eye icon on the Feature Toolbar and switch off the visibility for all
visible parts or right click and select Hide; the Line Tool is now visible
 Drag the Line Tool by its center and adjust the tool by its end points so it's in front of the
car; make sure the Line Tool is in the correct position by rotating the view or by using
the side, front and top view of the car; we'll use the Line Tool to emit streamlines from
 Click the eye icon again to make the car visible again or right click and select Show
 Make sure the visible parts are still selected in the Parts List and color all visible parts
grey, for instance by right clicking in the Parts List or on the car and selecting Grey
6. Select parts 1-9 in the Parts List

7. Click the Particle Traces icon on the Feature Toolbar and the Particle Traces menu is
displayed
8. Take the default settings but under Emit From select the Line Tool and click on the Create with
Selected Parts button; please note the *Working* message in the Message Area in the lower
left hand corner of the EnSight window while EnSight is calculating the streamlines; after a few
seconds you should see some streamlines but if you don't, make sure the Line Tool is in the fluid
domain by placing it closer to the car

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9. Try some of the options such as: # Points (change to 25 for instance), set the Direction to +/-
10. Color the Particle Trace Part by a variable, for instance the pressure_coefficient, by either using
the Color Wheel, right clicking on the Particle Trace Part or by using drag-and-drop from the
Variable Object List
11. Modify the range of the color palette by moving the cursor over the legend and dragging the
min and max values - make the range from 1.0 to -1.0 (see the image on the left below); the
model should look something like the picture below on the right

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12. Left click on the streamlines in the graphics window and an 8-arrow icon will appear; left
click on these arrows (the cursor will change to a pointing finger) and drag the streamlines
interactively (it's like having a smoke generator in a wind tunnel)

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13. Double click the Particle Trace Part in the Parts List; toggle the Animate button on the Edit
Attributes menu and click the Animate Settings button; under Tracer Head Representation
select Arrows; see what the effects are of changing the Scale and the Detail
14. Hide the Particle Trace Part and see only the particles fly by; what are the effects of Tracer Time
and Tracer Delta changes? Toggle the Multiple Pulses on and change the Pulse Interval

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15. Switch off the Particle Trace animation by double clicking the Particle Trace Part in the Parts List
and switching the Animate toggle off

16. Select parts 1-9 and create a clip by clicking the Clip icon on the Feature toolbar; select
the Mesh Slice to be in Y and set the Value to 0 (see the image below on the left) which is the
center plane of the car; color the clip plane by the Velocity variable and set the color range to 0-
40; make the clip plane transparent with an opaque value of 0.85; your model should look
something like the picture below on the right

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17. Please note that you can also left click on the clip plane and move the plane interactively;
however, this is a lot more taxing on the CPU and GPU so it probably won't update as fast as
moving streamlines

Extra Credit

18. Create Vector Arrows by clicking the icon on the Feature toolbar; select the Clip Plane
Part and for the Variable select the velocity and set the Density to 0.1; color the Vector Arrow
Part with the velocity variable for instance

19. Select parts 1-9 and create an Isosurface by clicking the icon; set the Variable to
total_pressure and set the Value to 0; color the Isosurface Part with the turb_kinetic_energy
variable and modify the range to 0-40
20. Color the entire car by the pressure_coefficient but do not use the Color Wheel or a right click of
the mouse

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Exercise 3: Query and plot using the Line Tool and query a point on a clip plane of a stir tank

1. Click on File -> Open and click the OK button on the New Case menu and keep the default of
Replace Currently Loaded Data; select the Simple Interface again
2. Set the File Type to Case and go to the ../EnSight 10 Training/Exercises/EnSight Basic
Exercises/Exercise 3 & 4 Stir Tank/stir_tank.case
3. Hide parts 3, 5 and 6
4. Switch on the Line Tool by clicking on the Line Tool icon ; you probably won't see the Line
Tool because it's hidden inside of the yellow part with Part Id = 4; move the Line Tool so it's
inside of the Flow Field (Part Id = 1)
5. Use the Line Tool to create a query and plot of the static pressure along the Line Tool (right click
on the Line Tool); see if you can make the plot look like the one below

6. Create a clip in the Flow Field with a Mesh Slice in X and query a point on the clip using the

Interactive Probe Query feature by clicking the icon; select Surface Pick for the Query and
select Velocity for the Variable, then click the P-key or click the mouse wheel on the clip plane
7. Set the Query back to None at the end of the exercise

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Exercise 4: Stir tank with multiple viewports and dynamic labels

1. Click on File -> Open and click the OK button on the New Case menu and keep the default of
Replace Currently Loaded Data; select the Simple Interface again
2. Set the File Type to Case and go to the ../EnSight 10 Training/Exercises/EnSight Basic
Exercises/Exercise 3 & 4 Stir Tank/stir_tank.case
3. Hide parts 3, 5 and 6
4. Make a clip plane with a Mesh Slice at X = 1.0 (select the Flow Field as the parent); create vector
arrows on the clip plane with a Density of 0.25, so select the Clip Plane Part that you've just
created as the parent, and color the vector arrows by the velocity; hide the Clip Plane Part so
only the vector arrows are visible
5. As you can see, the vector arrows are coming out of the Clip Plane Part and it would be nice to
just have the tangential component in the clip plane; to do this, double click the Vector Arrows
Part in the Parts List and toggle the Advanced button on the Edit Attributes for tagged Vector
Arrow (see the image below on the left)

6. Set the Projection to Tangential and set the Scale Factor to 2.5; the model should look
something like the picture above on the right
7. Create a new viewport by right clicking on the background and selecting Viewports -> Create;
the new viewport can be moved and resized; move it to the top left corner of the graphics
window and make the size a little bigger by dragging one of the corners
8. Right click in the background of the new viewport and select Part Visibility -> Hide All; the new
viewport is now not showing anything at all; in the Parts List, click on the Vector Arrow Part and
drag it into the new viewport; now the new viewport only displays the Vector Arrow Part (make
you are looking at the +X view; use the icon and select +X if the view is incorrect)

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9. Create a new text annotation by right clicking in the background and selecting Quick Text; edit
the text to 'Clip Section at X = ' then click on the Special Values tab and select Part Value and
select Clip Plane ->> 0001, then click the Insert Special Item button (see the image below on the
left); the Part Value takes the current value of the X-value of the section clip and pastes it into
the text string so it's dynamically linked to the position of the clip plane (and the Vector Arrow
Part since it's a child of the Clip Plane ->> 0001 part)
10. Your model should look something like the picture below on the right

11. Make a clip plane with a Mesh Slice at X = 0.5 (select the Flow Field as the parent) and color the
clip plane by the velocity; create another new viewport and put it below the viewport you've
created in the top left corner; create another dynamic annotation just like the one for the top
left viewport (see image below)

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