[mnolan93]

Hi guys,

Apologies for the basic question but I can't get any help from the tutorials. Basically im trying to set up a solution animation for contours of mass concentration for one cycle of an oscillating flow imposed on a baffled pipe. I'm just trying to find where I can open the animation sequences window so I can set up this playback in the solution playback animation tab?

Any help is appreciated

Thanks

[Sun]

This should answer your question.
cheers!

[mnolan93]

thats the thing though, I cant find where to open the 'solution animation' panel? I'm using Workbench 15

[CeesH]

Hi Martin,
If you already know what plane you want to shoot your movie in, and know the min. and max. contour value, Sun's suggestion is indeed the best. You can find it in FLUENT itself, under calculation activities.

If you are not sure about all of the above, an alternative is to write a datafile every (N) timesteps, and load them in CFD-post. Note that this is much more data intensive! You can find a tutorial on CFD-post movies here

[mnolan93]

What do you mean by what plane I want to shoot in? as in what physical position looking at the model? if so the model is 2d so any is ok

[CeesH]

That's what I mean; in case you look at a 3D model, probably your movie will be either a slice or an iso-surface, and you have to specify that upfront in FLUENT (you can't change camera position easily after you ran the simulation). when using datafiles, the entire field is stored each step, so your camera position can be tuned afterwards with ease.

Of course, when running in 2D, the choice is obvious; you simply want to look straight at the plane.

[mnolan93]

Right so i've sorta got it now, its just when I click play in solution animation playback...nothing happens! I ran the simulation, setup the sequence and tried to click play in playback but its just blank :/

[CeesH]

Sounds familiar. The animation recorder in FLUENT doesn't seem to be very good; I guess you saved the data as metafiles?

I typically use ppm images, also be sure to select a window that isn't used by any other output (like residuals or other monitors), and make sure you select the window before setting up the animation details; I've made the mistake of changing the desired window number after setting up the details, and instead of a nice contour-movie I got a movie of a monitor plot...

[mnolan93]

its all good, got it! thanks for the help.

only thing I have to do now is watch this movie back without using fluent. I saved the movie using ppm images. how am I able to convert these files into a film? I read you can use gif files but not too sure how to go about converting 300 ppm images into one gif?

[CeesH]

Hi Martin,

I typically use the free software irvanview to convert the ppm images to something more common, like png or jpeg. Then, I use VirtualDub (also free) to stich the frames to a movie and apply filters, if required.

Best,
Cees