Plot a mesh

This tutorial shows different commands for plotting a mesh without data.

A mesh is represented in DPF by a MeshedRegion. You can store multiple MeshedRegion objects in a DPF collection called MeshesContainer.

You can obtain a MeshedRegion by creating your own from scratch or by getting it from a result file. For more information, see the Create a mesh from scratch and Get a mesh from a result file tutorials.

PyDPF-Core has a variety of plotting methods for generating 3D plots with Python. These methods use VTK and leverage the PyVista library.

Load data to plot

import ansys.dpf.core as dpf
from ansys.dpf.core import examples, operators as ops

# Download and get the path to an example result file
result_file_path_1 = examples.download_piston_rod()

# Create a model from the result file
model_1 = dpf.Model(data_sources=result_file_path_1)

Plot a model

You can directly plot the overall mesh loaded by the model with Model.plot().

Note

The DpfPlotter displays the mesh with edges, lighting and axis widget enabled by default. You can pass additional PyVista arguments to all plotting methods to change the default behavior (see options for pyvista.plot()), such as title, text, off_screen, screenshot, or window_size.

model_1.plot()

([], <pyvista.plotting.plotter.Plotter object at 0x0000013BD4A7CDD0>)

Plot a single mesh

Get the mesh

Get the MeshedRegion object of the model.

meshed_region_1 = model_1.metadata.meshed_region

Plot the mesh using MeshedRegion.plot()

Use the MeshedRegion.plot() method.

meshed_region_1.plot()

([], <pyvista.plotting.plotter.Plotter object at 0x0000013BAD320F90>)

Plot the mesh using DpfPlotter

To plot the mesh using DpfPlotter:

1. Create an instance of DpfPlotter.

2. Add the MeshedRegion to the scene using add_mesh().

3. Render and show the figure using show_figure().

plotter_1 = dpf.plotter.DpfPlotter()
plotter_1.add_mesh(meshed_region=meshed_region_1)
plotter_1.show_figure()

([], <pyvista.plotting.plotter.Plotter object at 0x0000013BD4B0AA10>)

You can also plot data contours on a mesh. For more information, see Plot contours.

Plot several meshes

Build a collection of meshes

There are different ways to obtain a MeshesContainer. Here, we use the split_mesh operator to split the mesh based on the material of each element. This operator returns a MeshesContainer with meshes labeled according to the split criterion. In our case, each mesh has a mat label. For more information about how to get a split mesh, see the Split a mesh and Extract a mesh in split parts tutorials.

meshes = ops.mesh.split_mesh(mesh=meshed_region_1, property="mat").eval()
print(meshes)

DPF  Meshes Container
  with 2 mesh(es)
  defined on labels: body mat

  with:
  - mesh 0 {mat:  1, body:  1, } with 17281 nodes and 9026 elements.
  - mesh 1 {mat:  2, body:  2, } with 17610 nodes and 9209 elements.

Plot the meshes

Use the MeshesContainer.plot() method. This plots all MeshedRegion objects in the MeshesContainer and colors them based on the property used to split the mesh.

meshes.plot()

([], <pyvista.plotting.plotter.Plotter object at 0x0000013BD4552CD0>)

You can also plot data on a collection of meshes. For more information, see Plot contours.