Each Graphics object gets a default name such as graphics1, graphics2, and so on, when it is created. These names are used to reference graphics objects in command sequences for buttons, menu items, and in methods. To reference graphics objects in a specific form, use the syntax: form1/graphics2, form3/graphics1, and so on.

In the Settings window for a graphics object, use the section Source for Initial Graphics Content to set the plot group or animation to be displayed as default. To select, click Use as Source or double-click a node in the tree. If a solution exists for the displayed plot group, the corresponding solution will be visualized when the application starts. The figure below shows the Settings window for a graphics object with a Temperature plot selected as the source.

In addition to Results plot nodes, you can also use Animation, Selection, Geometry, and Mesh nodes as the Selected source.

Selecting the Zoom to extents on first plot checkbox ensures that the first plot that appears in the graphics canvas shows the entire model (zoom extents). This action is triggered once the first time that graphics content is sent to the graphics object.

In the section Data Picking, below Source for Initial Graphics Content, selecting the Enable data picking checkbox makes the graphics object interactive so that you can, for example, click on a plot at a particular point and retrieve a numerical value for the temperature at that coordinate. For more information, see Data Picking.

For a graphics object, the Appearance section of the Settings window has the following options:

In addition, the subsection State contains settings for the visible and enabled state of the graphics object. For more information, see Changing the Enabled and Visible State of a Form Object.

The figure below shows an application where the background Top color is set to white and the Bottom color to gray. In addition, the standard plot toolbar is not included.

In the editor tree used in a command sequence of, for example, a button, the Graphics Commands folder contains commands to process or modify a graphics object. The figure below shows a command sequence with one command for printing the contents of a graphics object.

The available Graphics Commands include:

Note that the many of these commands have corresponding toolbar buttons in the standard graphics toolbar. See the Graphics Toolbar.

To let the user monitor convergence, you can plot the results while solving. In this example, assume that the Plot option is enabled for Results While Solving. This option is available in the Settings window of a Study node in the model tree, as shown in the figure below.

You can include a method that calls the built-in sleep method for briefly displaying graphics information before switching to displaying other types of graphics. Insert it in a command sequence after a plot command, as shown in the figure below.

In this example, the sleepABit method contains one line of code:

For more information on the method sleep, see sleep.

In the command sequence above, the Plot Velocity command comes before the Compute Study command. This ensures that the graphics object displays the velocity plot while solving.

In this context, two graphics objects with the same name but in different forms count as two different graphics objects. For example, form1/graphics1 and form2/graphics2 represent two different graphics objects. In addition, if a graphics object is used in a subform (see Form), then each use of that subform counts as a different graphics object.

If you need to use methods to change a plot, use the useGraphics method. For more information on writing methods, see The Method Editor.

You can clear the contents of a graphics object by a call to the useGraphics method, such as:

which clears the contents of the graphics object graphics1 in the form form1.

The type of tree node used in the Source for Initial Graphics Content determines the type of toolbar that is shown. The toolbar will be different depending on the space dimension and whether the referenced source is a Geometry, Mesh, Selection, or Plot Group node. For example, the Plot Group node displays an additional Show Legends button.

In the Settings window of a graphics object, in the Toolbar section, you can control whether or not to include the graphics toolbar, as well as its position (Below, Above, Left, Right). In addition, you can choose between the options Small or Large for Icon size, Background color, and whether to Include standard toolbar items or not.

The figure below shows the standard graphics toolbar as it appears when the Geometry or Mesh node, for a 3D model, is used as a Source for Initial Graphics Content.

When the Source for Initial Graphics Content is set to a Selection, the graphics toolbar will contain three additional items: Zoom to Selection, Select Box, and Deselect Box. This is shown in the figure below.

For more information on selections, see Selections.

The figure below shows the standard graphics toolbar as it appears when a 3D Plot Group node is used as a Source for Initial Graphics Content.

If the Source for Initial Graphics Content is set to an Animation node, then additional buttons for playing the animation are added to the graphics toolbar, as shown in the figure below.

In the Toolbar section, you can also add custom buttons to the graphics toolbar. Use the buttons under the table to add or remove custom toolbar buttons (items). You can also move toolbar buttons up or down, add a Separator, and Edit a button. The figure below shows a standard graphics toolbar for results with four additional buttons to the right.

To edit the command sequence for a toolbar item, click the Edit button to open the Edit Custom Toolbar Item dialog.

This dialog has settings that are similar to those of a button or a toolbar item with the contents divided into two or three tabs depending on if the item is a toggle item or not. For details, see Button and Item and Toolbar and Form Toolbar.

In the graphics toolbar of an application, the Go to Default View button (for 3D graphics only) will reset the current view to the default view. If you click the arrow next to this button, a menu will be displayed with all applicable views. The currently active view is indicated with a check mark.

In addition to a list of all views, there is an option Reset Current View that will reset the currently active view to the state it had when the application was launched.

You can display animations in an application by using a Results > Animation node as the Source for Initial Graphics Content.

To run the animation, use the Form Wizard or the Editor Tools window to create a command from, for example, a button that runs a Results > Animation node.

In the Model Builder, named selections let you group domains, boundaries, edges, or points when assigning material properties, boundary conditions, and other model settings. You can create different types of selections, for example, by adding subnodes under the Component > Definitions node, as shown in the figure below. You can also create selections generated by geometry or mesh sequences. These can be reused throughout a model component.

As an example of how selections can be used, consider selections for boundary conditions. When you select which boundaries should be associated with a certain boundary condition, you can click directly on those boundaries in the graphics window of the COMSOL Desktop environment. This is the default option called Manual selection (see below). These boundaries will then be added to a selection that is local to that boundary condition. Named selections instead let you define selections that can be reused for several different kinds of boundary conditions within a Component by just selecting from a drop-down list. The figure below shows an Explicit selection given the name Inlet Boundaries with an associated boundary (1).

The figure below shows the Settings window for an Inlet boundary condition where the Inlet Boundaries selection is used. In this example, there are also selections for Outlet Boundaries, All Fluid Boundaries, and Fluid Walls.

For convenience, in addition to the Manual option, there is also a shortcut for All boundaries. The example above is available for download from this link: www.comsol.com/model/app-with-cad-import-and-selections-86621. It demonstrates the use of ribbon buttons (items) for interactively selecting inlet and outlet boundaries in a microfluidics model.

The Explicit selections, created under Definitions, or by geometry or mesh sequences, let you group domains, boundaries, edges, or points based on entity number, and the example below illustrates how to work with this type of selection. Explicit selections can be made interactive in an application, but other types of selections, such as a coordinate-based Box selection, are shown in read-only mode.

You can allow the user of an application to interactively change which entities belong to an Explicit selection with a Selection Input object or a Graphics object. In the example below, the embedded model has a boundary condition defined with an Explicit selection. Both a Selection Input object and a Graphics object are used to let the user select boundaries to be excited by an incoming wave.

The user can here select boundaries by clicking directly in the graphics window, corresponding to the Graphics object, or by adding geometric entity numbers in a list of boundary numbers corresponding to a Selection Input object.

To make it possible to directly select a boundary by clicking on it, you can link a graphics object to an Explicit selection, as shown in the figure below. Select the Explicit selection and click Use as Source. In the figure below, there are two Explicit selections, Excitation Boundary and Exit Boundary, and the graphics object graphics2 is linked to the selection Excitation Boundary.

To make it possible to select by number, you can link a Selection Input object to an explicit selection. For more information, see Selection Input.

The Editor Tools window provides a quick way of adding a Graphics object or a Selection Input object that is linked to an Explicit selection. To get these options, right-click an Explicit selection node in the editor tree.

You can also let a global Event be triggered by an Explicit selection by selecting it as the Source for Data Change Event. This allows a command sequence or method to be run when the user clicks a geometry object, domain, face, edge, or point. For more information on using global events, see Events and Source For Data Change Event.

For an example of how to use selections in an add-in, see the Application Programming Guide.

In the Settings window for a graphics object, select the Data picking checkbox to make the graphics object interactive so that you can, for example, click on a plot at a particular point and retrieve a numerical value for the temperature at that coordinate. In the figure below, in the section Target for Data Picking, a scalar double variable Tvalue is selected. This variable is declared under the Declarations node. In the running application, the value of the temperature at the pointer position will be stored in the variable Tvalue.

If the Target for Data Picking is a 1D double array, then the stored value will instead correspond to the x, y (2D) or x, y, and z coordinates at the clicked position.

The Target for Data Picking can be any one of the following:

For more information on Graphics Data declaration, see Graphics Data.