29.5.3 Saving and Restoring Views

After you make changes to the view shown in your graphics window, you may want to save the view so that you can return to it later. Several default views are predefined for you, and can be easily restored. All saving and restoring functions are performed with the Views dialog box (Figure  29.5.1).

Graphics and Animations Views...

Note that settings for mirroring and periodic repeats are not saved in a view.

Restoring the Default View

When experimenting with different view manipulation techniques, you may accidentally "lose'' your geometry in the display. You can easily return to the default (front) view by clicking the Default button in the Views dialog box.

Returning to Previous Views

After manipulating the display and viewing it from different angles, you can return to previous displays by clicking the Previous button in the Views dialog box.

Saving Views

Once you have created a new view that you want to save for future use, enter a name for it in the Save Name field in the Views dialog box and click the Save button. Your new view will be added to the list of Views, and you can restore it later as described below.

If a view with the same name already exists, you will be asked in a Question dialog box (see Section  2.1.6) if it is OK to overwrite the existing view. If you overwrite one of the default views (top, left, right, front, etc.), be sure to save it in a view file if you wish to use it in a later session. (Although all views are saved to the case file, the default views are recomputed automatically when a case file is read in. Any custom view with the same name as a default view will be overwritten at that time.)

As mentioned above, all defined views will be saved in the case file when you write one. If you plan to use your views with another case file, you can write a "view file'' containing just the views. You can read this view file into another solver session involving a different case file and restore any of the defined views, as described below.

To save a view file, click the Write... button in the Views dialog box. In the resulting Write Views dialog box (Figure  29.5.6), select the views you want to save in the Views to Write list and click OK. You will then use the Select File dialog box (see Section  2.1.6) to specify the file name and save the view file.

Figure 29.5.6: The Write Views Dialog Box

Reading View Files

If you have saved views to a view file (as described above), you can read them into your current solver session by clicking on the Read... button in the Views dialog box, and indicating the name of the view file in the resulting Select File dialog box (see Section  2.1.6). If a view that you read has the same name as a view that already exists, you will be asked in a Question dialog box (see Section  2.1.6) if it is OK to overwrite (i.e., replace) the existing view.

Deleting Views

If you decide that you no longer want to keep a particular view, you can delete it by selecting it in the Views list and clicking on the Delete button. Use this option carefully, so that you do not accidentally delete one of the predefined views.