How can i colour different 'layers' of material / particles in EDEM simulation to visualise mixing in a screw auger

Sam Arnold

I would like to colour different 'layers' of material / particles in EDEM simulation to visualise mixing in a screw auger. Ive seen similar things done on example and demo videos - but ive not see nany instructions or tutorials on how to actually do it. Any help would be appreciated please.

Ignacio Diez Alonso_21259

Hello Sam,

 

For this what I would generally do is create a series of manual selections. You can do this in the Analyst, by right clicking on the set-up selections section in the analyst tree and choosing a manual selection. Go to time 0 in your simulation or to whichever time the material is there and you want to define the "layers" at.

Select the Manual Selection and from its menu (generally found below) check the Enable Manual Selection Checkbox. The cursor will change to a cross and you can drag and drop to make a 3D selection of your material (I would recommend having the view on +-X +-Y or +-Z depending on your system. 

Once you are done creating your selection uncheck the Enable Manual Selection box. Do the same for a new Manual selection for the next layer and so on.

Once you have all your manual selections done (or even each time you finish one), you can go to Display > Expand Selections > Expand Particle Selections > And click on your manual selection. You can here make it display the manual selection in a different color.  If you do this with every selection you can even hide the particles and just display your selections, each with their own color, play or record the animation and the colors of the original selections will remain. This will give you the mixing qualitative analysis that you are looking for. 

I hope that this helps.

Kind regards

Ignacio

Stephen Cole

Ignacio Diez Alonso_21259 said:

Hello Sam,

 

For this what I would generally do is create a series of manual selections. You can do this in the Analyst, by right clicking on the set-up selections section in the analyst tree and choosing a manual selection. Go to time 0 in your simulation or to whichever time the material is there and you want to define the "layers" at.

Select the Manual Selection and from its menu (generally found below) check the Enable Manual Selection Checkbox. The cursor will change to a cross and you can drag and drop to make a 3D selection of your material (I would recommend having the view on +-X +-Y or +-Z depending on your system. 

Once you are done creating your selection uncheck the Enable Manual Selection box. Do the same for a new Manual selection for the next layer and so on.

Once you have all your manual selections done (or even each time you finish one), you can go to Display > Expand Selections > Expand Particle Selections > And click on your manual selection. You can here make it display the manual selection in a different color.  If you do this with every selection you can even hide the particles and just display your selections, each with their own color, play or record the animation and the colors of the original selections will remain. This will give you the mixing qualitative analysis that you are looking for. 

I hope that this helps.

Kind regards

Ignacio

Hi Sam,

As Ignacio mentions I'd also recommend using selections.  You can also use them in combination with Clipping Planes.  I've included a short video showing usage.

 

Regards

Stephen