Image
Use the Image node to export plot images as PNG, BMP, EPS, TIFF, GIF, or JPEG image files.
To export a plot, right-click Export () and select Image, or right-click any Plot Group node, for example, 3D Plot Group or 1D Plot Group, and select Add Image to Export. Click the Image node under Export.
By default, the COMSOL Multiphysics generates images using the graphics card. Such hardware-accelerated image export runs fast and can make it possible to export larger images but can become unstable if the image size exceeds or is close to the allowed limit (for example, 4000-by-4000 pixels). To instead use software rendering for creating the images, open the Preferences dialog box, and, on the Graphics page, select the Use software rendering for image export check box.
Use the Animation node to export multiple images for different time steps or eigenvalues.
The nodes are numbered sequentially. To make it easier to organize, you can right-click and Rename the node.
The default values for the properties below are valid before any image has been exported successfully. After that, the settings from the last successful image export are used as default values the next time you add an Image node.
In the Label field, enter another label for the node if desired.
From the Preset list, you can choose from predefined and user-defined sets of image snapshot settings: Current, Manual (web), Manual (print) (the default), or Presentation and document, which are tailored settings for image snapshots suitable for a web page, for printing, or for a PowerPoint presentation or Word document, respectively. Manual (web) and Manual (print) both use a white background, but Manual (web) uses pixels and a resolution of 96 DPI whereas Manual (print) uses millimeters and a resolution of 300 DPI. Presentation and document uses a transparent background. The Current option uses the current size on the screen (which is displayed), so only the Zoom extents and Antialiasing check boxes are available under Image. If you have modified the image snapshot, you can save those settings as another preset option. To do so, click the Save as Preset button () and provide a name for the user-defined preset option in the Name field of the Save as Preset dialog box that opens. If you do not want to keep an added user-defined preset option, click the Remove Preset button (). If you have made changes to a preset option and want to return to its default values, click the Reset Preset to Default button ().
The Settings window for Image includes the following sections:
Scene
Select an image source. The tree of nodes contains the 1D, 2D, or 3D plot groups previously defined. It also contains component nodes that are associated with an image such as selections, the geometry (including individual geometry features and work planes in 3D), materials, physics features, and meshes. Click the Use as Source button () underneath the tree to define the selected node as the source for the image export. The selected node gets a source overlay () in the tree above and is added to the Selected source field below. Click the Clear Source button () as needed to remove the source. If you have added an image from a plot group, that plot group is set as the selected source.
Select a View: From plot group or From geometry (the defaults, depending on the selected node) to use the view from the plot group settings or from the component’s geometry, respectively, or select another view from the list (if available and previously defined). It is also possible to choose New view. The image then uses that new view, which appears as a 2D or 3D View node ( or () node under Definitions (or under Definitions>Views if the nodes are grouped by type).
In the Settings window toolbar, click the Refresh button () to refresh the Graphics window to get a preview of the image to export. Refreshing can be useful if you have changed the scene or view.
Click the Export button () in the Settings window or right-click the node and select Export to export an image to a file. You can also click the downward arrow beside the Export button or right-click and choose Export To () to open the fullscreen Export window for exporting to a database. The Messages window confirms where the file is exported as specified in the File section.
Image
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Select a Unit of dimension: Millimeters (mm) (the default), Inches (in), or Pixels (px).
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Select the Lock aspect ratio check box to keep the original image width and height.
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In the Width and Height fields, enter the number of pixels, millimeters, or inches for the final image size.
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Enter a Resolution. The default is 96 DPI (dots per inch).
The image size for the exported image is displayed below.
Select the Zoom extents check box to add a zoom to extents before exporting the image. The Antialiasing check box is selected by default to reduce stairstep-like lines and to smooth lines and edges.
Output
Choose a Target: File (the default), Clipboard (Windows only), or PowerPoint and Word (Windows only).
Target Set to File
If Target is set File, choose an image file Format: PNG (the default), BMP, JPEG, TIFF, GIF, glTF (GL Transmission Format; 3D only, saved as binary GLB files), or EPS (1D only). If you choose the JPEG format, you can also control the quality of the image using a quality measure (scalar number) between 1 and 100 (a higher number represents a higher quality). The default value is 92. Select the check box next to Quality to enter another quality number.
JPEG is a format that uses “lossy compression”, so using a low quality measure can make the exported image differ from the original image.
Enter a Filename including a path to save it to your computer or click Browse and navigate to where you want to Save the output. Click the downward arrow for the Location menu () to choose Copy Location () and (if you have copied a file location) Paste Location ().
Select the Always ask for filename check box (only available if you are not saving to a database) if you want the program to always display a dialog box for specifying where to store the image.
Target Set to PowerPoint and Word
Choose this option to use the image in a Microsoft® PowerPoint presentation or Microsoft® Word document. The export will copy the image to the clipboard in a way that it will remain linked to the model for future updates after pasting it into the presentation. See Creating PowerPoint Presentations and Word Documents with Linked Tables and Images for more information on how to insert and update images in a presentation.
Select the Lock view check box if you want to lock the view in PowerPoint and Word. Saved camera settings are then used when you update the image from PowerPoint or Word. If this check box is cleared, the current camera settings are used when updating the image.
Layout
When importing an image with a transparent background to another Windows application, first save the image as a file rather than saving it to the clipboard. In some cases the transparent background is not preserved if you copy an image via the clipboard.
One additional Background option is available for the Image export when using a PNG file format: Transparent. Otherwise, see Animation for the rest of the settings. For 1D Image nodes, the Include check box is selected by default.
For the glTF file format, the Include line segments check box is selected by default. Clear that check box to exclude line segments, which can be useful for glTF viewers that do not support line segments.