Blood Flow Manual
Contents |
Usage
Basic Usage
The Blood Flow plug-in comes with two data sets: Aneurysm & Fontan. To add another data set to the plug-in, refer to the "Adding New Data" section.
The Aneurysm data set is considerable smaller and thus will load much faster. It is the recommended data set when loading in the StarCAVE. After selecting the data to load, click "View All" to position the data in your field of view.
The plug-in can display two elements at the same time: one surface data set and one "tracer" data set. For example, when loading the surface, you can decide on an animated surface or a static surface. An animated surface will move or pulse, while a static surface will remain stationary. While an animated surface is generally the preferred display mode, a static surface will load considerable faster and thus might be preferred when time constraints are present.
Surface Options
You may notice that there are three options of surfaces for the two data sets: displacement, pressure, and velocity. All of these options determine the colors of the surface. Selecting "displacement" will color the surface based on how much it moved from the original position. A patch of blue would indicate little to no movement; a patch of green would indicate moderate movement; a patch of red would indicate considerable movement. The coloring scheme is determined by the data set, although both the Aneurysm and Fontan data sets use the blue -> teal -> green -> yellow -> red coloring scheme. Selecting "Pressure" will use the given coloring scheme to indicate how much pressure is occurring on the surface. Selecting "Velocity" will use the Euclidean norm of the velocity vectors on the surface nodes to color the surface.
Tracer Options
There are three tracer options for the two data sets: Pathlines, Streamlines, and Velocity Vector Field. The names are self-explanatory. You can load any of them alone, or you can view them with a surface (static or animated). Make sure that your surface and tracer data correspond (i.e. the both start with either "Aneurysm" or "Fontan").
Other Options
Quality Percentage
Selecting a percentage that's less than 100% will gracefully reduce the vertices of the model in order to enhance run-time performance. Keep in mind that lower percentages will result in longer "optimizing" times during loading.
Transparency
The "transparency" option will indicate the opacity of the surface. 1 indicates complete opacity, while 0 would indicates complete transparency.
