
Time Plots
The Time Plots options can plot numerous MPM results as a function time on a 2D plot of plot quantity vs. time. Multiple plots can be superposed on a single plot. To start a new time plot, select the Analyze→New Time Plot Window menu command. A new window will open with a dialog box to select the quantity to be plotted. The possible settings are:
- Quantity
- Select the calculation result to plot from the pop-up menu. See table of calculation results for details. Any disabled items are not available for plotting either because they do not apply to the calculation results or they were not archived in the MPM analysis. Select the Expression... item to plot an expression of analysis results.
- Tensor
- If the selected plot quantity is a tensor, select which component of the tensor to plot from this pop up menu.
- Vector
- If the selected plot quantity is a vector, select which component of the vector to plot from this pop up menu.
- Angle
- For tensor or vector quantities, you can rotate the coordinate system to plot that quantity in a direction not aligned with the analysis axes. Enter a clockwise direction in degrees. For example, entering 90˚ when plotting σyy will rotate the
y
axis to thex
axis and plot σxx instead. - Options
- Depending on the plot quantity selected, there may be additional options.
- Point Number: plot the selected result on that particle. To find the particle number, open a particle plot and move the mouse over the particles. The particle numbers will be displayed in the pt: field in the tool bar.
- All Points: sum the results for all particles in the calculation (excluding rigid particles). Use "Averaged" check box to plot volume-average value over particles or to plot the raw sum.
- One Material: sum the results for all particles of a single material. Use "Averaged" check box to plot volume-average value over particles or to plot the raw sum. Select the material by name from the pop-up menu. If the results did not assign unique names, select by number in the menu. The materials are numbered starting from 1 and in the order they are listed in the results file. To find a material number, you can also open a particle plot, select to plot "Material," and move the mouse over the desired material. The material number will be displayed in the z: field in the tool bar.
- Averaged: When plotting "All Points" or "One Material", check this box to plot volume-averaged value or uncheck to plot raw sum of values. It is usually best to plot averages for intensive quantities (e.g. stress, strain, velocity, etc.) and to plot raw sum for extensive quantities (e.g., strain energy, external work, energy, etc.). When plotting an expression, choose the option that makes most sense for the evaluated expression.
- Crack Parameters
- If the plot quantity is a crack property, such as KI, Crack Length, etc., select which crack to plot. The cracks are numbered starting from 1 and are in the ordered they are defined in the file. For crack tip properties, select which end of the crack to plot. Note the J1 is J integral or total energy release rate while J2 is a calculation result but does not have simple physical interpretation.
- Import...
- Click this button to plot data in a plain-text file. The file should be tab-delimited file with x axis in first column and any number of plots in subsequent columns of y data. The data can start with plotting setting up commands (e.g., to set plot color, line style, etc.). One use for this option is to plot output of custom tasks, provided those tasks output to an appropriately-formatted file.
After selecting the desired plot, click OK and a plot such as shown below will open. More details on customizing the plot are given below the window. A single window can superpose any number of plots. To add a new time plot to the current plot, select the Analyze→Add Time Plot menu command and repeat the above plot selection process.

Options in Time Plots and 2D Mesh Plots
The plot will appear in a generic 2D plotting window. There are many options for customizing the plot, plotting new data, and exporting the plot to graphics or text files.
Plot Style
To customize plot style, double click somewhere along any plotted data. An inspector window will open. You can enter a name, set the plot color and line style, and select plot symbols, their color, and style. Line thicknesses and symbol size are entered as percent of the plot diagonal such that all size settings will scale as the plot is resized. If you can not click on a plot because it is obscured by other plots, click on any plot and then select the desired plot from the pop-up menu.
For histogram plots, double click at the top of any bar to get the inspector window. You can set the size of the bars to make the fill space better or change any other plot features.
You can also cut, copy, and paste the selected plot. Once copied, it can be pasted into any other time plot or 2D mesh plot window. You can also paste it into a text window to get a table of the results.
Plot Features
Click the inspector icon to open a plot inspector that can be used to change many features of the plot. For each axis, X Axis and Y Axis, you can enter the axis labels (including its color and font), axis limits and tick marks, and optionally choose log axes. Select the Frame option to set the style and color of the plot axes. The Data option can do simple transformations on the x
axis or y
axis data of a selected plot or of all plots. The f(x) option can be used to plot any simple function of x
on the current plot.
Adding Labels and Arrows (or other shapes)
The plot tool bar has icons for various options (control-click on the tool bar to customize the displayed options). Click on the "T" icon to add a text label to the plot or click on the "Shape" icon to add an arrow to the plot. Once a label or arrow is added, click and drag to move it around or click and drag endpoints to reorient an arrow (click and hold that icon to add other shapes). To customize text of labels and many more settings, open the inspector, and click on the label, arrow, or shape. Use the inspector to make the changes. To delete an label, arrow, or shape, select it and use the Cut menu command or drag it to the trash.
You can add subscripts and superscripts to labels as follows: type "K_{II}" to get "KII" or "m^{2}" to get "m2". The brackets can be omitted when the subscript or superscript is a single character, e.g., "m^2".
Saving a Plot
You can export the plot to a PDF
file by using the File→Export→Graphics PDF File...
Drag and Drop Options
The are various drag and drop options for time plots or 2D mesh plots:
- To export a
PDF
file of the plot, click in any white space within the plot frame and drag to the Finder. The icon will be aPDF
icon while dragging. You can also drag to any application that accepts PDF graphics (e.g., Keypoint). - You can click and drag on any plotted data and the icon will be a "plus" icon while dragging. You can drag the plot to another time plot or 2D mesh plot window to copy the plot to that window. You can drag the plot to any text-based application that accepts dragged text (such as TextEdit) and a table of the results will appear in the text window. Finally, you can drag to the trash to delete that plot.
- You can click and drag a plot label or a plot arrow to move it or to copy it to a different time plot or 2D mesh plot. To duplicate it within the same plot, hold the option key while dragging.
- To plot other data in the plot, you can select any tab-delimited set of data in any text application and drag it to the plot window. If the application with the table does not support dragging, you can copy the text, click in the plot window, and finally select paste.