We are constantly taking feedback from our users and incorporating their suggestions in to our products to improve the user experience. In that vein, we have made several usability improvements to PyroSim in the 2021.1 release, some of which are mentioned below. You can view the full list on the PyroSim Release Notes page after the release on February 24th.
New Scenarios are now activated immediately after creation
Following the release of the Scenarios feature in version 2020.4, some users reported that they would create a new scenario and begin editing, only to realize that they had not switched over to the newly created scenario and had to undo their changes. We have updated the Scenarios tool so that when you create a new scenario it is automatically activated, and any changes that you make will be added to it by default. If you haven’t already, check out our Scenarios tutorial to learn the basics of how you can use the Scenarios feature in your workflow.
The drawing of individual points can be undone when using the wall or slab tools
Prior to version 2021.1, if you were to start drawing with either the wall or slab tools and make a mistake, there was not a way to undo the mistake. Using the Ctrl+Z shortcut would instead undo the last action outside of the tool. In version 2021.1 we have added the ability to undo individual points when using those tools, which will be especially helpful if you are drawing obstruction with a lot of vertices. You can see a short demonstration of the new undo action below.
The state of the FDS Blocks Preview is now remembered when you re-open your models
We had some users report that they found the FDS Blocks Preview very useful for verifying their models, but they saw performance issues when enabling/disabling the FDS Preview on larger models. This was exacerbated when they had to close and re-open models, and then had to switch to the FDS Blocks Preview. Because of this, we modified PyroSim to save the state of the FDS Blocks Preview when a model is saved. Now, if you are viewing the preview and close your model, the preview will be shown when you re-open the model.
Clicking a selected object in the Navigation Tree will open a renaming prompt
You can now rename most objects in the PyroSim navigation tree similar to how files can be renamed in the Windows File Explorer. Prior to this, the only way to rename objects was to right-click the object, then find the rename button to trigger the renaming prompt. Now, you can select an item in the Navigation tree and click it again a few milliseconds later to rename it.
Our first release of the year will include requested improvements to our Results application. Results can view the output of the simulators embedded in PyroSim and Pathfinder. The improvements below help with visualizing social distancing hot spots using contours, showing cut outs from PyroSim slices, and improving the ability to edit colorbars for FDS results.
Social Distance Contours
Our first release of the year will include requested improvements to our Results application. Results can view the output of the simulators embedded in PyroSim and Pathfinder. The improvements below help with visualizing social distancing hot spots using contours, showing cut outs from PyroSim slices, and improving the ability to edit colorbars for FDS results.
Figure: A Pathfinder model with the Social Distancing contour enabled. The occupants that are violating social distancing are highlighted with a scale that matches the severity of the violation.
Note: The social distancing contour has inverted coloring by default. This serves to better highlight the hotspots where occupants break social distancing.
Cut out obstruction in slices
After receiving several requests from users, we modified how the data inside of obstructions is displayed when viewing 2D and 3D slices in PyroSim Results. When viewing a slice in prior versions of PyroSim, the data inside of an obstruction was stored as a value of 0, and the slice would display the appropriate color for that region. In version 2021.1, slices will display blank areas where they intersect obstructions instead of showing the color for the 0 value. This should aid users and reduce confusion when showcasing results to clients and AHJs.
Figure: A 2D temperature slice shown in version 2020.5 of PyroSim. The central wall (transparent and highlighted) appears in the slice as the blue color for a 0C temperature.Figure: A 2D temperature slice shown in version 2021.1 of PyroSim. The central wall (transparent) does not appear in the slice, but the central hole in that wall (where relevant data is recorded) appears normally on the scale.
Colorbar – FDS Preferences Quantity selection
The FDS data preferences colorbar setting UI was updated so that the dialog now shows a drop-down for the quantity whose colorbar information you’re editing. If you activate an output object and then double-click the colorbar, it will show the FDS preferences dialog like before, but it will automatically select the quantity of the active object in the drop-down.
Note: There are some quantities that are technically the same. For example, GAS TEMPERATURE and TEMPERATURE are different quantities even though they both measure temperature. They show up as two different quantities in the drop-down since they have different names, and you can edit properties for each separately. You’re allowed to activate objects of both quantities at the same time, but only the properties for the last activated quantity are used.
Advanced Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) with PyroSim and Smokeview This seminar will hold live sessions Monday, Wednesday, and Friday(s), February 15 – March 12 from 11am to 1pm ET. Please see the SFPE Event Page for more information and to Register.
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