avese User Guide

Get started

There is nothing to install. Follow these steps to draw your first plot.

Download the ZIP, extract it and run avese.exe.
Drag and drop a data file onto the window, or use the leftmost toolbar button. If you have no data yet, use flow.txt from the sample data.
Switch on Vectors or Contours in the toolbar and press Redraw. Hover over a button to see its name.
Move the mouse over the plot to read X, Y and Z at that position in the status bar.

Video: overlay vectors and contours, then read values with the mouse (14 s)

Toolbar toggles do not change the plot by themselves. Press Redraw at the end.

The app and the screenshots on this page show the Japanese interface. avese picks Japanese or English from your OS language, so on an English system the same buttons are labeled in English.

The main window

The avese main window: a menu and two toolbar rows on top, the plot in the middle and a status bar at the bottom

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

No.	Area	Buttons
1	File	Open data, save the image, copy to the clipboard
2	Plot size	Pick width or height as the reference and set the pixel count. Vertical and horizontal scales can be set separately
3	Actions	Redraw, reload, settings, help
4	2D / 3D	Switch between the plan view and the bird's-eye view
5	Coordinates	XY (Cartesian) or cylindrical
6	Plot type	Distribution, scatter, panel
7	Overlays	Vectors, contours, axes, grid, data points
8	Status bar	X, Y and Z under the mouse (θ and r in cylindrical coordinates). Not shown in the bird's-eye view

Plot types

Every plot can be switched on from the toolbar or the settings. The images below were made from the sample data with avese. The --set values are what you pass on the command line to get the same plot.

Distribution plot of pressure around a cylinder — **Distribution**Colors the plot by the Z value. A point with `-` in the Z column is left blank (white).

Velocity vectors over a distribution plot — **Vectors**Draws the U and V columns as arrows. `CBvector=1`. Thin them out with `CBskipx=1 EDstepx=4` and so on.

A contour-only plot — **Contours**16 lines with `CBtoko=1 SEtoko=16`. Hide the distribution with `CBgraph=0`.

Axes, grid and contours drawn together — **Axes and grid**`CBaxis=1 CBaxistitle=1 CBgrid=1`. Set axis titles with `EDXtitle` and friends.

Bird's-eye view of a surface with a peak and a valley — **Bird's-eye view**Draw it as a surface with `CBland=1 CBsurface=1`. Height is `SElandheight`.

Distribution plot and vectors in cylindrical coordinates — **Cylindrical**`RBcartesian=0 RBcylindrical=1`. The X and Y columns are read as θ (degrees) and r.

Distribution plot on a triangular mesh built from irregular points — **Triangular mesh**Points that are not on a grid become a surface when the data contains `Mesh AutoCreate`.

Scatter plot of measurement points as colored dots — **Scatter**Draws each point as a colored dot. `CBscatter=1 SEdotsize=5`.

Panel plot colored cell by cell — **Panel**Colors a file of Z values laid out as a grid, cell by cell. `CBpanel=1`.

Data format

Data is a text file. Both Shift-JIS and UTF-8 are read. Each line is one data point, and values are separated by spaces, tabs or commas.

# X  Y  Z  U  V
0  0  1.5  0.2  0.1
1  0  1.8  0.3  0.1
2  0  -    0    0

Which column is read as X, Y, Z, U and V can be changed in the I/O tab of the settings. These forms are also available.

Syntax	Meaning
`-` (in the Z position)	Leaves the area around that point blank (white)
Blank lines, lines starting with a symbol or letter	Skipped
`Labels x,y,text`	Places text at pixel (x, y) of the image, with the origin at the top left. Write it before the numbers. Drawn when Show labels is on
`Mesh AutoCreate`	Splits points that are not on a grid into triangles automatically. Write it before the numbers
A `[AVESE.EXE]` section	Embeds settings as `key=value` lines. Effective when "Read settings from the data file" is on
`IncludeINI "name.ini"`	Loads another settings file

In cylindrical coordinates X and Y are θ and r, and U and V are the θ and r components. With the panel type, the file is read as a grid of Z values only, and the first line becomes the top of the image.

Embedding settings

[AVESE.EXE]
SEsize=640
CBvector=1
[DATA]
0  0  1.5  0.2  0.1
1  0  1.8  0.3  0.1

Change settings

Open the settings dialog with the Settings button in the toolbar. Press OK to redraw with the new settings.

Video: change the gradient, then reverse it (19 s)

Tab	Contents
Legend	Show the legend, set the Z range, gradient type, color count, reversal and folding, legend size
I/O	Column assignment, lines to skip, panel transposition, spline interpolation, data check
Labels	Label font, and the list of labels added on screen
Display	Margins, background and foreground colors, fonts for each part
Advanced	Save settings on exit, bitmap size limit, image format
3D View	Height, draw as a surface, view angles (η, φ)
Distribution	Dot size and shape for scatter plots
Vectors	Thinning, length, color, arrowheads, reference value
Contours	Number of lines, range, color
Coordinates, Grid	Coordinate system, line width, arrows, titles, ticks

The data range is shown in read-only fields each time data is loaded. A value you type is used only for items whose "Specify" box is checked. Save settings writes avese.ini next to avese.exe, and it is loaded at the next start.

Gradients

Choose from nine gradients. The default is smooth colors-1. On the command line, use CBtype=0 to 8.

Bird's-eye view

In the 3D View tab of the settings, turn on the bird's-eye view and press OK. Change the viewpoint with the numbers η and φ, or with the sliders next to the preview. The box in the preview moves, so you can check the direction as you adjust.

Video: switch to the bird's-eye view and change the viewpoint (20 s)

Saving and output

Choose the format with the file type in Save Image. If you type a name without an extension, the extension of the chosen type is added.

Format	Notes
PNG	Good for the web and documents
BMP	256-color bitmap, uncompressed or RLE-compressed
EMF, WMF	Metafiles
AVI	Uncompressed video, made with batch processing
Clipboard	Sent with Copy. Image Options in the settings chooses bitmap or EMF. Windows only

Batch and video

Select several files, or drop them together, and the Batch Processing dialog opens. It turns the result of each calculation step into numbered images or a video.

The Batch Processing dialog with a file list and buttons for sort, add, delete, create BMP and create AVI — The Batch Processing dialog

Arrange the list with Add, Delete, Sort, ↑ and ↓. Sort compares digits as numbers, so frame2 comes before frame10.
Create BMP saves filename.bmp for each file.
Create AVI makes an uncompressed AVI with one frame per file, in list order. Frame Rate sets the frames per second, and Set Size sets the dimensions.

To keep the color range from changing from frame to frame, set the Z minimum and maximum in the Legend tab. The wave video at the top of this page is fixed to −2 to 2.

Command line

Make images and videos without opening a window. This is handy when you add avese to the post-processing of a calculation.

avese data.txt
avese --render data.txt out.png [--rle] [--ini settings.ini] [--set key=value]...
avese --avi out.avi --fps 10 [--frame-size 640x480] [--ini settings.ini] [--set key=value]... data1.txt data2.txt ...

The output format follows the extension (.png, .bmp, .emf, .wmf). Add --rle to make a .bmp RLE-compressed. Settings are applied in order: the --ini file first, then --set.

Examples

avese --render flow.txt vector.png --set SEsize=520 --set CBvector=1 --set CBskipx=1 --set CBskipy=1 --set EDstepx=4 --set EDstepy=4
avese --avi wave.avi --fps 12 --frame-size 640x480 --set CBenZmin=1 --set EDenZmin=-2 --set CBenZmax=1 --set EDenZmax=2 wave/wave01.txt wave/wave02.txt wave/wave03.txt

Common keys

Key	Meaning
`SEsize`	Plot size in pixels
`CBgraph`, `CBscatter`, `CBpanel`	Distribution, scatter, panel (0 or 1)
`CBvector`, `CBtoko`	Vectors, contours (0 or 1)
`CBskipx`, `CBskipy`, `EDstepx`, `EDstepy`	Whether to thin out vectors, and the step
`SEtoko`	Number of contour lines
`CBaxis`, `CBgrid`, `CBpoint`, `CBlegend`	Axes, grid, data points, legend (0 or 1)
`CBland`, `CBsurface`, `SElandheight`, `SEeta`, `SEphi`	Bird's-eye view, surface, height, view angles
`CBtype`, `CBreverse`, `CBfold`	Gradient type (0 to 8), reversal, folding
`CBenZmin`, `EDenZmin`, `CBenZmax`, `EDenZmax`	Fix the Z range

Download

The latest stable release is v1.0.0, for Windows (x64). Extract the ZIP and run avese.exe. No installation is needed.

Download v1.0.0 (ZIP)

Release notes and older versions are on GitHub Releases.

On other OSes, install Rust and build from source. The clipboard works on Windows only.

git clone https://github.com/tetsuji16/avese.git
cd avese
cargo build --release

Sample data

samples.zip (about 1 MB) contains the data behind the plots on this page. All of it is generated from formulas; see make_samples.py for how.

File	Contents
`flow.txt`	Flow around a cylinder in a uniform stream: pressure coefficient and velocity, with the inside of the cylinder as a hole
`peaks.txt`	A surface with peaks and valleys
`polar.txt`	An example in cylindrical coordinates
`scatter.txt`	600 points that are not on a grid
`panel.txt`	Z values laid out as a grid, for the panel type
`wave/`	Two interfering wave sources, 24 frames. An example for batch processing and video

About

avese is released under the MIT License. Report problems and find the source code on GitHub. The interface language follows your OS setting, Japanese or English.

See your numbersin color and lines.