Observations Pane

The Observations pane is on the SUTRA Features tab of the Object Properties dialog box. It is used to define the name, time schedule, and format of a set of observations defined by the object.

If the object defining the observations has only point sections and (for three-dimensional model) has only one third dimension formula, the observations will be located at the exact location of the points making up the object. For all other objects, the observations will be located at the node or at the element center depending on whether the object is evaluated at nodes or elements.

The Name (OBSNAM) is used to identify an observation in the output file. If no name is specified, a default name will be supplied.

The Schedule (OBSSCH) identifies the times at which observed values will be printed. You may choose a time schedule that you have already defined or Custom. If you chose Custom, you may specify any times and ModelMuse will ensure that a properly defined schedule is created and used with these observations. If you choose a predefined schedule, the table of times will be filled with the times defined by that time schedule.

Observation format (OBSFMT)

"Observation results are written to “.obs” and/or “.obc” output files. Both report the same information, but they are organized differently. In “.obs” files, all results computed at a given time are listed across the page on one line, unless a line wrapping option is invoked to avoid generating extremely long lines of output. The organization of “.obc” files is analogous to that of “.nod” and “.ele” files: results computed at a given time are preceded by a header and are listed one observation point per line." (Voss and Provost (2010)

The Observation times table lists the times at which simulated values will be printed. These times will be filled in automatically if the user selects a time schedule. For a Custom schedule, list the times. The number of rows in the table can be changed using the Number of times control.

If the user selects an existing schedule for the observation times and then later changes the definition of that schedule, the Adjust Times dialog box will appear the next time the user opens the object in the Object Properties dialog box. The user will be given a choice between using the original or revised times. If the user changes the definition of a schedule and does not open the object in the Object Properties dialog box before exporting the SUTRA input files, the original times will be used to define custom time schedule.