[max3.2]

Hi,

is there a way to use more than one custom colormap in Tecplot(360 2017R1)?

Current procedure: Under contour->Colors beside the colormap selector, use the options to import colormap from file. Opening a map file works (header seee below). Plotting works, renaming the importe map works.
Importing the next file however always overwrites the previously imported one, no matter what name I choose.

*.map header:

#!MC 900
$!COLORMAP
  CONTOURCOLORMAP = USERDEF
$!COLORMAPCONTROL RESETTOFACTORY
$!COLORMAP
  USERDEFINED
    {
    NUMCONTROLPOINTS = 50
    CONTROLPOINT 1
      {
      COLORMAPFRACTION = 0.000000
      LEADRGB
        {
        R = 68
        G = 1
        B = 84
        }
      TRAILRGB
        {
        R = 68
        G = 1
        B = 84
        }
      }
    CONTROLPOINT 2
.
.
.

[davidossorio]

Greetings Max,

It looks like you're using a colormap file that was exported from an older version of Tecplot360. We've changed the colormap syntax in 360EX after version 2013 R1, so the first thing to do is load your old colormap files into 360EX 2017 and export them. They will now be in the new format.

Note that if you do not convert your colormap files to the new format, colormaps will be overwritten when you import them in 2017R1, as you've described.

In the new format, the standard colormaps (such as small rainbow) cannot be changed. Instead, when a standard colormap is modified in the colormap dialog, it is renamed with a "(1)", "(2)", etc. So user modified colormaps will have names like "SmRainbow (1)", etc.

For backward compatibility, when importing an old-style colormap, 360EX 2017 will notice if any of the standard colormaps have been changed and create new (1), (2), ... colormaps as described above. Thus, if you've modified a standard colormap it will have a name in this format in the new file.

In the new format, all colormaps are identified by name, so colormap names must be unique (case insensitive). After you've saved your colormaps in the new format you can edit the names as follows:

1. Open the colormap file in a text editor
2. Each unique colormap in the file will begin with the line: "$!CREATECOLORMAP".
3. On the line below "$!CREATECOLORMAP", there will be a "NAME = '...'" property, which can be edited to change the name of the colormap. The standard colormap names (i.e., 'Small Rainbow') are reserved, but otherwise names may be anything.

Once all of your colormap names are unique, they will not be overwritten when you import multiple files.

Also note that older versions of Tecplot (2013 R1 and earlier), are not able to read the new colormap format, so we recommend that you back up your existing colormap files before converting them to the new format.

Hope this helps. For more information, please feel free to contact Tecplot Technical Support and we will be happy to assist you.

David Ossorio
Senior Software Development Engineer
Tecplot, Inc.