Contour Data Pane

  • Scroll to top of this topic Scroll to Top of Page

  • Print the current topic Print Topic

  • No expanding elements on this page Show/Hide Expanders

The Contour Data pane is on the Data Visualization dialog box. It is used to contour the values of a data set. The Contour Data pane is displayed by selecting Contour Data on the Data Visualization dialog box.

Selection Tab

The user chooses the data set whose values will be contoured in the combo box at the top of the dialog box. Only data in active cells or elements will be contoured. 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 or element should be contoured. For instance, in a MODFLOW model, the user might want to contour the grid with the elevation of the bottom of layer 3. To do that, set the selected layer to layer 3 when contouring.

The user can specify the Contour Interval. If the Contour Interval is set to zero, ModelMuse will select an appropriate contour interval automatically.

If the user is not satisfied with the contour values, different values can be selected by checking the Specify contours checkbox and then clicking the Edit contours... button to display the Specify Contours dialog box.

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

There are two different methods that can be used to draw contour lines.

1.The Simple method interpolates values between data points to find the positions where the contour lines should be drawn.

2.The ACM 626 (Association for Computing Machinery algorithm 626) determines the derivatives of the values with respect to the X and Y directions and uses those derivatives to construct curved lines. (See http://calgo.acm.org/.)

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.

If Label contours is checked, some contours will be labeled with their contour values. The font used to label the contours can be changed by clicking the Contour label font button.

The space between labels (in pixels) is specified using the Label spacing edit box.

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 contoured 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 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 used for contouring. This is useful when a particular value represents missing data.

In MODFLOW-LGR models, Models to contour allows you to apply contours to all the models or just some of them.

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.