Visualizing element fields using iso-surfaces
Visualizing element fields using iso-surfaces
Iso-surfaces are graphical representations used to visualize 3D or 2D objects that connect every point where the value of a certain field is the same. This idea is analogous to the contour lines on a map, where a line connects every point of a certain height. In 3D this means that a surface connects every point of a certain value. An example of this is in example a7 where an iso-surface is used to show the surface where every point is at 100 degrees Celsius. For a simpler example, example a2 shows the creation of an iso-surface at x=0.5 within the simple cube mesh.
As with surfaces, the detail level of iso-surfaces is determined by the selected tessellation setting in settings editor area of the scene editor (Figure 2). Iso-surfaces are drawn to connect points on the edges of the sub-element divisions where the iso-scalar matches the chosen value. With an tessellation setting of 1, an iso-surface will only connect points on the line edges of the element.