editor Model/Results: color contour customization?

[Anonymous]

Dear Colleagues:

I want to display FEM responses for different loads, with the same color contour map (in the Model/Results tab) for each analysis, with the color map defined with "nice" border numbers.  (I need this to compare responses side-by-side in a report.)  However, I can't figure out how to do this. 

The customization of the color map I could find in the Editor is painfully limited.  In Setup > Default Settings > Postprocessing I am able to choose the number of contour map levels, can also select the type of contour as Finge (or Continuous), and I can also set some display options.  However, the result is not useful for side-by-side comparison, because the contour map level borders always shift/scale with the extreme response values.  This means that if the maximum (or minimum) response value (e.g., max. stress level) changes from one load (one analysis to the next (it always does), then the contour map borders also change and different colors end up being associated with different response levels -- the results become unfit for a quality comparison 

Also, I would like to customize the color contour borders to nice numbers., in order to streamlinei the quantitative study of the contour maps.  As is now, the borders end up some "generic" muultiple-digit numbers, rather than, for example, 1.00, 1.50. 2.50. etc.  

The display options I am trying to use are simple, basic stuff (for example, they are easily set up in FEMAP) -- but I can't figure out how to make them happen in the Nastran Editor.  Please, point me to the right direction! 

Thank you for your help.  

Gy. G.

ps. I know that often the extreme response values are of prime interest, and the indication of how the response field change across the model is nice to scale to the extrema/  However, it is equally important and basic to be able to use a "fixed" contour -- the option I am interested in.  In fact, this is not only a staple feature for side-by-side comparisons, but is also importnat if one wants to "zoom in" to any particular response value sub-range within the full range.

[gerrardhickson]

This is still a frustrating problem. I've added an request in the ideas section. 

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/nastran-ideas/nastran-editor-results-legend-customisation/idi-p/99529...

Please give it a like.

[gerrardhickson]

I just thought I'd follow up on this. I've been working in Nastran Editor all day, and I just stumbled upon this feature!

For future readers, If you navigate in the results browser (left window) to the result type you want - Shell Max Von Mises for example, right click and choose "Min/Max Values" you can select the range of the legend.

A few pointers - The value you set isn't persistent when you change load cases or display types. BUT you can keep the "Contour Settings" window open, and just click "Display" when you re-fresh your view.
Secondly, the colour doesn't display "White" or similar for values outside your desired range. SO, If you go to Setup> Default Settings>Color Bar, and set your upper (and lower if you choose) colour values to white (or some other colour) then the color bar will set vales higher than your upper limit to the upper colour - everything else will be coloured.

Is this user friendly? No, not really. Does it do the job? Yeah, it does.