A Point plot is available in 2D () and 3D () to plot points using various geometric shapes and to plot torque arrows (2D only). Add Deformation, Filter, Selection (Plot Attribute), Transformation, Transparency (3D only), and Visual Effects (3D only) subnodes as needed. Right-click a 2D Plot Group or 3D Plot Group to add this plot type from the More Point Plots submenu.

In this section, you decide the geometry level for the point evaluation. From the Geometry level list, choose Point (the default), Line, Surface, or Volume (3D only).

If you chose Line, Surface, or Volume, then also specify the following properties:

From the Placement list, choose Node points (the default) or Gauss points. If you choose Node points, also specify the resolution using the Resolution list: Finer, Fine, Normal (the default), or Custom. With Custom, specify a node-point order in the Lagrange-element node-point order field (default: 1). If you choose Gauss points, also specify the order in the Gauss-point order field (default: 1). Use a higher order for a finer resolution.

Select an evaluation data Smoothing method — None, Inside material domains (the default, for smoothing within domains shared by the same material but not across material boundaries), Inside geometry domains (for smoothing within each geometry domain but not across interior boundaries), Everywhere, or Expression. If you choose Expression, enter an expression in the Expression field such that smoothing occurs where the expression is continuous. The default expression is dom, the domain variable, which is equivalent to the Internal smoothing. For all Smoothing methods except None, you can also choose smoothing threshold, if needed. From the Smoothing threshold list, select None (the default), or select Manual to enter a relative smoothing threshold value (default: 0.1) in the Threshold field.

If you have chosen Node points from the Placement list, you can specify accurate derivative recovery using the Recover list. The default is Off because the accurate derivative recovery takes processing time. This recovery is a polynomial-preserving recovery that recovers fields with derivatives such as stresses or fluxes with a higher theoretical convergence than smoothing. To use accurate derivative recovery, from the Recover list select Within domains to perform recovery inside domains or Everywhere to apply recovery to all domain boundaries.

Specify a limit for the number of points in the Maximum number of points field (default: 100,000).

From the Point type list, choose one of the following point types:

For all expression fields, click the Replace Expression button () to choose from applicable predefined variables to use as part of or the entire expression.

By default, the value in the Radius scale factor is determined automatically. To enter another scale factor, select the associated checkbox and then change the value of the scale factor.

To plot points so that they all have the same fixed size, select the Fixed size checkbox.

For the coloring settings, see Defining the Coloring and Style.

Change the value in the Point radius field (default: 2) to a value between 0 and 1 to adjust the point size.

From the Color list, choose the color to use for the annotation text. Choose From theme (the default) to use the color from the current color theme, or choose Custom to choose a custom color from a color palette. Select the frame background color from the Background color list. Choose From theme to use a background color that changes with the selected color theme.

From the Anchor point list, choose the position of the anchor point relative to the annotation text: Upper right, Upper middle, Upper left (the default), Middle right, Center, Middle left, Lower right, Lower middle, or Lower left.

From the Orientation list, choose Horizontal (the default) or Vertical, if you want the annotation text to be displayed vertically instead of horizontally.

Select the Show frame checkbox to display the annotation in a rectangular frame.

Select the Include unit checkbox to add the unit of the expression for which the plot shows the maximum or minimum value.

If you want to add a prefix or a suffix to the labels for the minimum and maximum values, add them in the Prefix and Suffix fields. The same prefix and suffix are used for the minimum and maximum labels.

From the Number format list, choose one of the following formats: