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Plot View Options

This menu appears in the upper left below the main menu when you are in the plot view. It does not show in the data view because it only pertains to the plot.

Plot File Menu

These topics allow you to manipulate plot files; these are not the same as input files with the .anaq extension.  These are graphics files of the plots that you create with Make Plot.  You can save plot files to a variety of vector, bitmap, and CAD file formats.  You can also open drawing files in these formats.

This menu allows printing of the plot to any printer installed on your computer.

You may also save the surface data that is the basis of a contour plot, so that you can subtract it from another solution's data to make drawdown plots.

Open

Allows you to open a previously-saved plot.  Plots are saved in various VectorDraw (the CAD drawing component in Anaqsim) file formats, including DXF, which is a universal drawing exchange format.  See the Plot File Menu/Save topic for a list of formats.

Save

Allows you to save the plot to a file in various VectorDraw (the CAD drawing component in Anaqsim) file formats.  The formats include DXF, which is a common CAD file format.  If you have not already saved the plot to file, a dialog pops up to ask you where to save the file, what type of graphics file it is, and the file name.   You can save plot files to a variety of formats which are listed below:

  • VDML, VDCL, VDF, VDI - Vector Draw CAD file formats
  • DXF - CAD drawing exchange formats of various vintages (ASCII file).
  • WMF, EMF, SVG - Vector graphics file formats
  • BMP, GIF, JPG, TIF, ICO, PNG, - Bitmap file formats
  • PDF - Adobe portable document format

Save As

This is the same as Save, but automatically shows the dialog allowing you to change the filename, format, or destination.

Clear Plot

This clears the plot to a blank view.

Print

This brings up a dialog that allows you to print the plot to any printer available to your computer.  The print dialog has many standard options including paper size, paper orientation, and margins.  There is a plot preview at the left of the dialog, which shows a detailed representation of the plot if you select Full Preview under Preview Options.  You may scale the plot to fit the paper or you may select a specific scale (e.g. 1 cm on printer = 50 m in model units).  The Print Area part of the dialog allows you to print the entire extent of the plot, or select a window to print a smaller portion of the plot.  To do the latter, click on Window and then the Pick button.  When the plot preview is adjusted to your satisfaction, click the Print button to send it to the printer.

Save Contour Grid Data to Binary File

This allows you to save the data that was contoured to a file in binary format.  This is useful if you want to contour the difference between two modeled surfaces using the Subtract feature under Plot Input/Contour Settings.  You might use this to compare the drawdown of simulation A compared to simulation B, for example.  When you do this, make sure that the Plot Input/What to Plot/Window and Plot Input/Contour Settings/Points_Evaluate are the same in the saved contour grid data as in the new plot you create.

Save Contour Grid Data to X, Y, Z ASCII file

This allows you to save the data that was contoured to an ASCII file, which then could be imported into other visualization software programs where you could examine the contoured surface.  You can export either to .csv (comma-delimited) or .txt (tab-delimited) formats.  The data format of that is written is as shown in the following Excel file, which was opened as a .csv file.

SaveContourDataASCIIExample.png

The first row is a header row, and the subsequent rows contain

  • X (column A)
  • Y (column B)
  • contoured parameter (column C)

Where heads drop below the base of unconfined domains, the value in the grid is set at the base elevation. 

Save Contour Grid Data to ASCII Surfer Grid File

This allows you to save the data that was contoured to an ASCII file in a format that can be directly imported into the Surfer contouring software (Golden Software).  You can then import this data into Surfer for analysis and plotting there.  The file is saved with the .grd extension recognized by Surfer.  Below is an example of such a file. which has blank characters as separators.  The first row, "DSAA" identifies the type of file being imported to Surfer.  The second line contains the numbers of data values in the x and y directions of the grid.  The third line contains the minimum and maximum values of x in the grid and the fourth line contains  the minimum and maximum values of y in the grid.  The fifth line contains the smallest and largest data values in the grid.  The sixth and subsequent lines contain the data values starting from xmin, ymin and working up by x rows to xmax, ymax.  

DSAA    
72 70
-427.5754841 315.3007776
-326.9260294 395.4048918
16.85028419 22.93994978
22.93994978    
22.8778982    
22.81579964    
22.75365779    
...

Where heads drop below the base of unconfined domains, the value in the grid is set at the base elevation. 

Save Pathline Start Point Data to ASCII File

This allows you to save the starting point data for the currently-plotted pathlines to an ASCII file, which then could be imported into other spreadsheet or visualization software programs.  You can export either to .csv (comma-delimited) or .txt (tab-delimited) formats.  The data format of that is written is as shown in the following Excel file, which was opened as a .csv file.

PathlineStartPts.PNG

The first two rows are header rows, and subsequent rows have these 5 columns of data:

  • x (column A)
  • y (column B)
  • z = elevation (column C)
  • pathline label from the single, line, area, circle, or well pathline input (column D)
  • capturing element label.  If capture constraint is checked under Pathline Settings, this will display the well or line boundary label that captured the pathline that started at this point. (column E)

Save Entire Pathline Data to ASCII File

This allows you to save the data for currently-plotted pathlines to an ASCII file, which then could be imported into other spreadsheet or visualization software programs.  You can export either to .csv (comma-delimited) or .txt (tab-delimited) formats.  The data format of that is written is as shown in the following Excel file, which was opened as a .csv file.

PathlineData.PNG

The data for each pathline starts with three header lines.  The first header line defines says "Start..." and includes the pathline number, which goes from 1...n with n pathlines in the plot.  The second and third lines of the header define the pathline's label under pathline input, and the well or line boundary that captured the pathline, if capture constraint is checked under Pathline Settings.  Subsequent rows have these 5 columns of data:

  • x (column A)
  • y (column B)
  • z = elevation (column C)
  • elapsed time at this vertex of the pathline.  Elapsed time always starts at zero at the pathline start point, and increases whether the pathline is traced upstream or downstream.
  • simulation time at this vertex of the pathline.  This is zero for a steady simulation, but in a transient simulation this is the simulation time.

The data for each pathline ends with the line End pathline n, where n is the pathline number.

View Manager

This brings up a dialog that allows you to alter the color, line weight, and visibility of various layers of the plot.  There are separate plot layers for contours, vectors, etc.  To toggle the visibility of a layer of the plot, click the icon in the On column.  To alter the color or line weight, click on those columns.  To omit a layer when printing or saving a plot as a pdf file, toggle the Plot column. When done making changes, press the OK button.  Changes to the On status, line color, line weight persist as long as you keep the Anaqsim application running;  these settings return to defaults when you exit Anaqsim.

For pathlines, there are layers for each line of input in the pathline input tables (point, line, area...).  These can be turned on/off separately, to show certain groups of pathlines.  When a group of pathlines is turned off, the pathline trace and the associated arrow time markers (if checked under Plot Input/Pathline Settings) are turned off.  Also, in the View Manager you can turn off all time markers but leave the pathline traces.  The pathline starting points are all in a separate drawing layer, and these may be turned on/off in the View Manager.

Digitize

These items let you digitize coordinates from the plot, which are stored in the clipboard and from there may be pasted into input data tables or forms with Edit/Paste or control-V.  It is very helpful to employ a basemap for digitizing.  Basemaps are discussed in the Plot Input/What to Plot topic.  Digitizing operations are demonstrated in detail in the tutorial videos at the website.

Point

This allows you to digitize a single point.  The coordinates of the point are stored as text in the form: X, Y in the clipboard.

This same functionality, but without the instructional pop-up windows, is available in the plot context menu (right-click over the plot).

Polyline, Measure Distance

This allows you to digitize a series of points, the vertexes of a polyline.  After the last point, press Esc or right-click.  At this point a message pops up telling you how many vertexes the polyline has and its total length.  Also, if the polygon is closed (first and last points the same), the message reports the area of the polygon. This is a handy way to measure distance or area on the plot.  The coordinates of the vertexes are stored in the clipboard as a series of text lines of the following form:

X1, Y1,
X2, Y2
X3, Y3
...

These coordinates may be pasted into the Coordinates column for any line boundary.

This same functionality, but without the instructional pop-up windows, is available in the plot context menu (right-click over the plot).

Circle Polygon

This allows you to digitize a series of points that are the vertexes of a polygon which lie equally-spaced on a circle.  First you select the number of points on the circle and then you digitize the center point and then digitize a 2nd point on the circle.  As you perform the digitizing operation, the circle you are creating is shown in yellow.  This is useful if you want to approximate a circular line boundary (e.g. inter-domain boundary).

The coordinates of the vertexes are stored in the clipboard as a series of text lines, each line of the form:

X1, Y1,
X2, Y2
X3, Y3
...

Ellipse Polygon

This allows you to digitize a series of points that are the vertexes of a polygon which lie equally-spaced on an ellipse.  First you select the number of points on the ellipse and then you digitize the center of the ellipse, followed by a point that is on the ellipse at one of the two primary axes, and then a third point that defines the final shape of the ellipse.  As you perform the digitizing operation, the ellipse you are creating is shown in yellow.  This is useful if you want to approximate an ellipse line boundary (e.g. inter-domain boundary).

The coordinates of the vertexes are stored in the clipboard as a series of text lines, each line of the form:

X1, Y1,
X2, Y2
X3, Y3
...

Surface Data Points

This allows you to digitize a list of surface data points in an "x,y,value" form, which can be then input under SVAS Top/Bottom Condition Surfaces.  After selecting this, a dialog pops up explaining how to digitize multiple points of input.  You may continue to input a large number of points in one operation, and the data will be written to the clipboard so it can be pasted into the Data column under SVAS Top/Bottom Condition Surfaces.

Clear Digitizing Marks

When you digitize, the features that you’ve digitized show up in the plot.  Selecting this item clears those marks from the plot.

This same functionality, but without the instructional pop-up windows, is available in the plot context menu (right-click over the plot).

Snap Settings

This menu lets you control whether and how the cursor snaps to other objects in the drawing or to a regularly-spaced grid of points.  Snapping is generally useful for precision digitizing.  The first four items are toggled on or off by selecting them.  When a check mark is present next to one of these four items, snapping in that mode is in effect.  The four snap modes are listed below:

  • Snap to Elements causes the cursor to snap to end points and centers of features shown in the "Elements" layer and the "SVAS Polygons" layer of the drawing.  This is useful for making sure that line elements and SVAS polygons meet exactly at their end points.  There is a dialog for changing what the cursor is snapping to, which can be reached by pressing Ctrl-right mouse button. Generally the default settings in this dialog are best, but in case you want to snap to the midpoint of a line element, you could set it to do that.
  • Snap to Base Map causes the cursor to snap to drawing entities in the base map.  This is mode should generally be off when you are trying to digitize line elements that need to connect to each other.
  • Snap to Digitized Data causes the cursor to snap to other recently-digitized features that are displayed in yellow.  This allows you to digitize several line boundaries and have them connect exactly.
  • Snap to Grid causes the cursor to snap to points in a regularly-spaced grid with a grid spacing that you set.  For example, if you set the snap grid spacing to 10, all digitized points will be multiples of 10.  This feature helps you precisely draw a line 100 units long, or a circle with precisely a 100 unit radius, for example.  It also can make the coordinates you digitize easy-to-read whole numbers. Note that if the grid spacing is smaller than the screen pixel size, this mode is ignored and digitizing behaves as though this mode were off.  If this is the case, either zoom in or increase the snap grid spacing to make this mode active.

The Snap Grid Spacing sets the spacing between points in the grid that is effecting when Snap to Grid mode is checked.

Edit Line Boundary

This menu gives you the ability to move, insert, or delete vertexes from a selected line boundary or spatially-variable area sink (SVAS) polygon.  To insert a vertex, select the line boundary or polygon (its existing vertexes will display purple squares), then select Edit Line Boundary/Insert Vertex, click OK when the dialog pops up, then click where you want the new vertex.  When done, press ESC to de-select the line boundary.   To delete a vertex, select the line boundary, then select Edit Line Boundary/Delete Vertex, click OK when the dialog pops up, then click the vertex you want to delete.  When done, press ESC to de-select the line boundary.  When you make these graphic edits, it changes the coordinates listed for that line boundary in the Model Input database.

The same functionality for inserting and deleting vertexes, but without the instructional pop-up windows, is available in the plot context menu (right-click over the plot).

Annotate

These menu items allow you to add polylines, rectangles, and text to the plot.

Polyline

After selecting this, left-click successively on the desired vertex locations for the polyline.  After the last point, press Esc or right-click.

Rectangle

After selecting this, click at one corner location and drag to the opposite corner and click again to draw a rectangle.

Circle

After selecting this, draw a circle with two left-clicks of the mouse.  The first click defines the center point and the second click defines a point on the circle and the radius.

Ellipse

After selecting this, draw an ellipse with three left-clicks of the mouse.  The first click defines the center point, the second click defines the direction and length of one of the two axes, and the third click defines the length of the other axis normal to the axis defined by the second click.

Text

After selecting this, click where you want the base of the text line to start, then drag in the direction you want the text to run and click a second time.  This allows text to be plotted in any direction.  Then type the text you want and when you are done typing your text, press Enter.

Clear All Annotations

Selecting this will erase all annotations from the plot.

Undo

Selecting this undoes the most recent change such as deleting an annotation.  This can be repeated to undo several recent changes.

Redo

This reverses the most recent Undo action.   This can be repeated to redo a sequence of recent Undos.

Text Styles

This brings up a dialog that allows you to change the characteristics of text displayed on the plot.  Changing any of the text characteristics makes this change for all text in the plot including annotations and calibration residuals.  The only exception is that the size of the contour label text is fixed and determined automatically as a fraction of the plot window dimensions.  

Plot Info

Selecting this causes information about the plot to be printed in a small window.  It shows the coordinates of the plot window.  If there are contours, it shows the surface contoured, the minimum and maximum data values, the minimum and maximum contour levels, and the contour increment.  If there are vectors, it shows they kind of vector shown and the minimum and maximum vector magnitudes. For transient runs, it shows the time period, time step, and time that applies to plot features like contours and vectors.

Zoom All

This causes the plot to zoom out so that the view shows all of the model.

Zoom Window

After selecting Zoom Window, select the new display window by clicking at one corner, drag to the opposite corner, and click again.  The view will zoom to the newly-selected window.

Zoom Out

This makes the plot zoom out incrementally showing more of the model.  Zooming in is accomplished with Zoom Window.

Zoom Previous

This zooms to the previous view.

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