METU Mechanical Engineering Department

ME 582 Finite Element Analysis in Thermofluids

Tecplot Tutorial

This tutorial teaches the basics of Tecplot visualization software. Well be working on the file
CavityNE900Quad_tecplot.dat which is the output obtained by steadyNS2D.m.

1. Click on the DAT file and by default itll be opened by Tecplot. If not first start Tecplot. From Files
menu select Load Data File(s)..., select Tecplot Data Loader and select the DAT file.
Click OK on the window titled Select Initial Plot.




2. By default Shade and Edge boxes are checked on the left panel. Click on the Mesh checkbox
to see the mesh.












3. You can use middle and right mouse butons to pan and zoom in/out. To see everything type Ctrl-F.
To go to the last view type Ctrl-L.












4. To draw contour plots click on the Contour checkbox of the left panel. By default pressure
contours will be shown. To see contour plots of the u velocity click on the ... button next to the
Contour checkbox to open Contour & Multi-Coloring Details window and change contour
variable from p to u.









5. To see which numerical value corresponds to which color of the contour plot, open the Contour &
Multi-Coloring Details window. Click on the small >> button on the right. Select the Legend tab
and click on Show Contour Legend checkbox.











6. By default a contour plot is shown in Flood form. It is possible to draw it in other forms such as
Lines or Flood and Lines. Click on the Zone Style... button of the left panel. You will see that
there is only one Zone to work with and it is already selected. Click on the Contour tab and change
Contour Type to Lines. Turn off the Mesh plot to get a more clean view.





7. To see the values that the contour lines correspond to open Contour & Multi-Coloring Details
window and select the Labels tab. Click on Show Labels checkbox. If necessary increase the font
size. It is possible to show either the value of the contour or the number of the contour level on a
contour line. For the second option make sure that the Contour Legend is also shown so that contour
level values can be understood.










8. Click on the Add contour levels and/or Delete a contour level buttons (They have plus and
minus signs on them) of the toolbar to add/delete a contour level.



9. To control the contour levels more precisely open the Contour & Multi-Coloring Details window
and select the Levels tab. Change the levels the way you want by using Reset Levels..., New
Levels... and Add Levels... buttons. You can remove any of the existing levels by selecting it and
clicking on the Remove Selected Levels button. You can quickly add a new level by entering its
value and clikcing on the << Add Level button.






10. To create streamlines, deselect the Contour checkbox on the left panel and click on the
Streamtraces checkbox. Click OK to accept the suggested variables for velocity components. Click
on the Add a single or rake of streamtraces button next to the Streamtraces checkbox. Click
anywhere on the problem domain to create a streamtrace. Click on a point and drag the mouse to a
new point before relasing the mouse button and then release it to create multiple streamtraces
originating from equispaced points of the line drawn.


11. To change the details of how the streamlines are drawn, click on the ... button next to the
Streamtraces checkbox. Most commonly used options are
- Delete All and Delete Last buttons on the Position tab.
- Accurate addition of a streamline at a specific point on the Position tab.
- Show Arrowheads on Lines check box on the Lines tab.
- Step Size and Max Steps values on the Integration tab. They are used to control the length
and accuracy of the streamlines.

12. To extract data along a line deselect the Streamtraces checkbox on the left panel and select the
Mesh checkbox. From the Data menu, select Extract and then Points From Polyline. To see
the distribution of variables along a vertical line at x=0.5 first click at a location close to (0.5, 0) and
then click at a location close to (0.5, 1). To finish polyline selection click on the right mouse button. A
window with title Extract Data Points will pop up. Select Zone and 100 as number of points and
click on Extract button. A new Zone will be created.


To see the u velocity distribution on this new zone change the plot type from 2D Cartesian to XY
Line using the very top button of the left panel. Click on the Mapping Style button of the left
panel. Select the first map of the mapping list. Change Zone to 2: Extracted points. Change X-Axis
Variable to u. Close the window. Type Ctrl-F to see everything.
















13. Double click on the x axis to open Axis Details window. Select the Grid tab. Select Show for
both Major and Minor grid lines for both x and y axis.












14. The white page on which plots are generated is called frame. It is possible to create new frames,
change their sizes and move them around inside the Tecplot window. Click on the border of the only
available frame and see the square handles on its corners and edges. Use these handles to reduce its
size. Press Crtl-C and Ctrl-V to create a copy of the frame. New frame is created on top of the old
one. Select it and move it to a new place.