Edit Category Legend

Category legends display the names for different color bands, instead of values, for easy identification of plots from a contour.

You can edit the contour legend in the Edit Legend dialog, which is accessed by clicking Edit Legend on the Contour panel. Some of the options in this dialog will change whenever MaxLayer, MinLayer, or ExtremeLayer layers are selected in the panel or when an envelope loadcase trace plot is contoured. Category legends display the names for different color bands, instead of values, for easy identification of plots from a contour. This is relevant and less error prone when identifying a layer or ply that contributes to min/max/extreme. The MinLayer/MaxLayer/ExtremeLayer plots from the Contour panel produce a contour with a Category legend as shown below:


Figure 1. Edit Legend Dialog
Note: A new color scheme has been implemented for certain category-based legends as part of the update in v2019 to allow editing of legend colors. Since categories are independent from one another, each category is given a discrete color and there is no automatic interpolation to determine category colors that the pre-v2019 rainbow color scheme used. The session file also saves the color information for every category explicitly.

The *UseLegacyCategoryColor Preference File Statement controls the default color scheme that will be used by category-based legends (used in case of envelope trace plot, max/min/extreme layer plots). When it is on, it will use the rainbow color scheme and category colors can not be changed. When it is off, it will use a new color scheme implemented in Altair HyperView2019 that allows category colors to be changed.



Figure 2.
The following options are available in the dialog:
Legend    
  Type
Fixed Scale
Displays an accumulation of all contributing categories in the legend for the time steps HyperView has already processed.
Dynamic Scale
Changes the legend with respect to the contributing categories at time step or simulation.
  Position Select the position of the legend within the HyperView window (Upper left, Upper right, Lower left, or Lower right).
Values and colors    
  Numeric format
Scientific
Displays the values in scientific format when queried on the entities of a category (Quick Query or Query Panel).
Engineering
Displays the legend values in engineering format when queried on the entities of a category (Quick Query or Query Panel).
Fixed
Displays the values in a fixed format when queried (Quick Query or Query Panel).
Auto
Displays the queried values in the format specified in the preference file default setting.
Note: *DefineNumericFormat() can be added in the preferences_post.mvw file, to define the default setting for numerical presentation in the legend. See the Preference Files topic for more information on specifying defaults in a preference file.
  Numeric precision You can increment the current value from 0 to 12 decimal points. This setting only affects the queried values.
  Max. levels allowed The upper limit on the number of color bands which are allowed to satisfy one color band per category. The minimum number of layer bands you can display in a legend is 2; the maximum is 32.

The default setting is 12, however you can set this value to adjust the color bands in the graphics area to provide one color band per category (to the extent feasible) as the loadcases are switched or transient results are viewed. Once the max level is exceeded and there are more contributing categories for a plot, the grouping of the categories will take place automatically.

If the number of contributing categories are less than the max levels allowed for any given plot, then only the few color bands pertaining to each contributing category will be displayed.

The grouping sequence for Max levels allowed in comparison to the contributing categories is as follows:
  1. If the number of contributing categories is less than or equal to the max levels allowed, then each band will have a single category label.
  2. If the number of contributing categories is greater than the max levels allowed, but not by twice or more, then the last color band will get a grouped category label range and the rest of the color bands will get single category label.
  3. If the number of contributing categories is at least more than twice the number of bands, then each color band will get a range of equal width to the extent feasible.
  Reverse Reverses the legend values assigned to the contour bands.
  Contributing Categories Displays the Category dialog which lists of all of the categories that are currently contributing to the selected contour.


Figure 3.

In the cases of a MinLayer, MaxLayer, or ExtremeLayer plot, all of the contributing layers/plies names are displayed. This is helpful in identifying all of the layers/plies when category grouping occurs (due to a lesser number of color bands than the contributing plies).
Show Category ID Displays the category ID instead of the label. This option is available for envelope trace plots.
Header Displays the legend header. To remove the header, deactivate the check box. To enter a new header, highlight the existing text, type in a new header and click Apply.

Click the font button, , to change the font style and size.
Footer

Displays the legend footer. To remove the footer, deactivate the check box. To enter a new footer, highlight the existing text, type in a new header and click Apply.

Click the font button, , to change the font style and size.
Title Displays the title of the legend. The title reflects the settings used to generate the contour and cannot be changed. Click the font button, , to change the font style and size.
Values The ability to specify user-defined values is not supported in the Category version of the dialog as the category names are decided based on the data types plotted. However, changing the legend colors (using the color palette) is available from HyperView v2019 onward. In case of MaxLayer/MinLayer/ExtremeLayer, the contributing layer or ply names are automatically shown next to the color bands. The grouping of the categories for each color band happens when the contributing categories are more than the Max. levels allowed value (set above).
  Transparency Displays the legend with a transparent background. Deselect the option to display the legend with the background color which is currently displayed in the color box (located to the right of the Transparency option).
  Fill color Displays the legend with a color background (if the Transparency option is deselected). To select a color for the legend background: click the color box to display the color palette, select a color, and click OK.
Note: The legend is displayed on the right side of the dialog, allowing you to preview changes as you make them.
Default Resets the default legend properties.
Apply Applies the changes made to the legend.
OK Applies the changes and exits the Edit Legend dialog.
Cancel Disregards the changes and exits the dialog.