Color Grid Pane

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The Color Grid pane is on the Data Visualization dialog box. It is used to color the grid or mesh according to the value of a data set, boundary condition, or observations. The Color Grid pane is displayed by selecting Color Grid on the Data Visualization dialog box.

Selection Tab

The user chooses the data set, boundary condition, or observation used to color the grid in the combo box at the top of the dialog box. If the item chosen, such as Specified_Head, can vary with time, the user should also select the time in the edit box labeled Time. If the item chosen is a data set, the comment for the data set will be displayed.

The comment for the data set will be displayed. The comment can be edited in the Data Sets dialog box.

When changing data sets, the same limits (on the filter tab) as in the data set that is currently displayed can be used with a newly selected data set. By default, the limits will be updated based on the values in the newly selected data set. However, if the user wants to compare one similar data set with another, it can be useful to use the same limits with both of them. For example, this might be used when comparing the heads computed in one stress period with those in another. The default setting is called Update limits whereas Retain limits describes the case where the limits in the previous data set are also used in the newly selected data set.

Different color schemes can be used to associate a given value of the data set, boundary condition, or MODPATH data with a color. The desired color scheme is selected in the combo box near the bottom of the dialog box. The range of colors in the selected color scheme is displayed below the combo box.

To cycle through the range of colors for a color scheme more than one time, change the value in the edit box labeled Cycles.

Because different monitors will display the colors slightly differently, the color adjustment can be used to optimize the appearance of the data.

See Light and Bartlein (2004, 2005), and Stephenson (2005) for more information about color schemes.

You can also define custom color schemes. See the Custom Color Schemes dialog box

If the Log transform checkbox is checked, the color that is displayed will be based on the log of the value that would otherwise be displayed.

Filters Tab

The user can select the range to be colored by checking the checkboxes labeled Lower limit and Upper limit and then entering the desired limit in the edit box to the right of the corresponding checkbox.

If the Only active checkbox is checked, only those elements or cells for which the Active data set is true will be colored. For MODFLOW 6 models, only cells for which the IDOMAIN data set is greater than zero will be colored. For 2D data sets, the selected layer, row, or column is used to choose the layer, row or column in the Active data set that is used to determine whether or not a cell should be colored. For instance, in a MODFLOW model, the user might want to color the grid with the elevation of the bottom of layer 3 but only for cells that are active on layer 3. To do that, set the selected layer to layer 3 and check the Only active check box when coloring the grid.

If any values are entered in the Values to ignore table, only cells that have a value different from one of the values in the table will be colored. For real numbers that should be ignored, Epsilon is used to compute the margin of error around the values that should be ignored. For example if "10" should be ignored and Epsilon = 1E-6, the margin of error would be 10*1E-6 = 1E-5 and any value between (10 - 1E-5) and (10 + 1E-5) would be ignored. If 0 should be ignored, the margin of error is equal to Epsilon.

Legend Tab

The legend tab shows how the displayed colors relate to their values. Note that cell values are also displayed on the Status Bar of the main ModelMuse window and in the Grid or Mesh Value dialog box.

ModelMuse can calculate appropriate values to include in the legend but if different values are desired, the user can change the Method from automatic to manual, specify the number of rows to include in the legend, and specify the values to include in the legend.

The Font button is used to specify the font used in the legend. The font is used both in the Legend tab and in the Export Image dialog box.