If I alter the view and don’t like the change, I can revert the view setup. The difference is, once I find a view I like, Tecplot gives me precise control over the camera location and direction. As with many packages, in Tecplot I can do this with just the mouse, without resorting to menu buttons to change modes. I will probably pan, zoom, and rotate through a wide variety of views, trying to figure out the best perspective from which to visualize my flow. When I first load that dataset, I don’t know exactly how I want to visualize it. Suppose I’m loading a complex 3D flowfield. The answer to “How do I…” is usually logical and straightforward, and Tecplot feels like it was designed from the ground up by a team that had extensive experience with CFD. Some software packages give the impression that they were designed by a GUI team with no engineering knowledge some packages look like they were written by engineers with no clue about interface design. Tecplot’s user interface is approachable and unintimidating. I was working off of nothing except for my fellow graduate students and a willingness to experiment. My introduction to Tecplot involved no formal training and no user guide (although I’m sure there was one available). If I can’t figure out how to make it work, it’s of no use to me. To me, the most important characteristic of any tool is usability. The brief version: Tecplot for CONVERGE is a user-friendly tool that works well and makes sense. Rather, I’ll tell you what I like about it as a CFD research engineer, and what you might like too. I’m not a trainer, so I won’t try to teach you how to use Tecplot (if you’d like to see a CONVERGE-focused introduction to Tecplot 360, Tecplot Product Manager Scott Fowler gave a webinar earlier this year). I am a longtime Tecplot user, having worked extensively with nearly every version since 2008 R1. No corporate details here–this is an engineer’s viewpoint. You may have seen the press release: starting May 31, a version of the Tecplot 360 flow visualization software will be packaged with CONVERGE.

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