## 5. Application of Solution Fields

### 5.1. Introduction

A fundamental feature of the NPart object is to apply solution fields to the extracted mesh. To this end, Field objects are used (see The Field Object for more information on Field objects). There are six different methods of displaying solution data with an NPart object:

• contour: Points, wires, and faces are coloured according to the values of a solution field. This is the most common method and can be applied to any scalar solution field.

• isoline: From a solution field, iso-lines (also known as contour lines) are computed and displayed. This method can be applied to scalar fields that are defined at the nodes.

• sampling: For solution fields that are defined at sampling points inside the elements, this method is used. It displays the values as spheres of variable size and colour at the element sampling points. This method is especially useful in Finite-Element stress analysis.

• ssl: Surface-streamlines are computed from a vector field and are displayed. This method is useful for the post-processing of Navier-Stokes analyses (skinfriction factors).

• deform: In Finite-Element stress analysis, this method applies the computed displacements to the geometry.

• vector: Vector fields can be displayed as a set of vectors.

In the graphical user interface, these methods are located on the "Fields" page of the NPart object's editor:

The following figure displays the shell elements of the bridge Finite-Element model. The 6th free-vibration mode is displayed using the contour, isoline, deform, and vector methods.