Particle Traces are conceptually similar to an injected dye stream in the flow. They are a very powerful way to visualize flow movement.
By default, particle traces do not have mass, so their movement is only influenced by the flow. To cause traces to behave more like a physical substance within a flow system, enable Mass.
To create a set of Particle Traces
Seeding methods:
To select seed point locations, left click on the Plane.
Key in the exact X,Y, and Z coordinates. Separate each coordinate with a comma. (Do not surround the coordinates with brackets or parentheses.) These coordinates do not have to be on the Plane.
Draw a rectangle on the active Plane by clicking three locations: the top two corners and a lower corner:
Specify the number of grid points in the Width and Height fields.
The Grid Spacing option bases the trace seed distribution on the vector density grid spacing. Use this to create a uniform distribution of traces throughout the entire results plane. This method is useful when computing Erosion.
To enable the Grid spacing option:
To adjust the Grid spacing density:
Draw a circle on the active Plane by first clicking on the center of the circular grid, and then dragging the circle to the desired radius and clicking again:
Specify the number of points in the radial and circumferential directions in the Width and Height fields, respectively.
To view, sort, and modify traces
Select the desired trace type from the Appearance menu:
The time that a trace takes to traverse through the model is its residence time, and is listed for each trace. Residence time can vary based on the flow, the geometry, and if the particle has mass.
A trace with a relatively longer residence time than the rest will affect animation. Such a trace will animate very slowly followed by a very rapid animation of the others.
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