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Overview

This area, shown in Animation area , provides file animation control. The panel consists of a slider scale, a text field, and five buttons. The leftmost button goes back one frame in the animation sequence, the next button plays the animation in reverse, the middle button stops the animation, the next button plays the animation, and the rightmost button moves forward one frame in the animation sequence. This control panel remains grayed out until you open a file that can be used in an animation.

MeshTV cycles through multiple SILO files to perform animations. These files must be in a "family," which means they must follow a naming convention where the root name is the same, followed by increasing numbers. For example, the files "rect0001.silo" and "rect0002.silo" comprise a family of files. These two files could be animated by MeshTV.

Animation slider

This slider shows where you are in the animation. If the problem's time steps are regular, 3/4 on the slider bar indicates both 3/4 in time through the problem run and 3/4 in distance (number of frames). If the problem's time steps are irregular, then the slider bar will either indicate distance through the animation, or time through the animation, depending on how the file was opened. If file times were read in when the files were opened, the slider bar will indicate time, else it will indicate distance. You can specify whether file times are read in by pulling up the Preferences window from the Extra menu at the top of the MeshTV Main window. You want the Ignore file times toggle button . When you turn this off, MeshTV will read in the file times, else it will ignore them.

Animation slider text field

This text field lists either the current frame number or the time of the animation. You can type in your own number to jump to a particular frame or time. The number entered indicates distance through the animation or time through the animation, depending on how the file was opened. If file times were read in when the files were opened, the number indicates time, else it indicates distance. You can determine whether file times are read in by pulling up the Preferences window from the Extra menu at the top of the MeshTV Main window. You want the Ignore file times toggle button . When you turn this off, you will read in the file times, else you will ignore them.