Quantity and unit manager: about

Introduction

The quantity and unit manager allows:

  • to have a list of the most current, usual quantities directly upon analysis (the list is different, in function of the treated application)
  • to have the units associated to the quantity visible upon analysis (curve, calculation on a point, isovalues, arrows, exports of results…)
  • to be able to choose the desired measurement unit for the analysis of his own Flux project
  • to be able to add one measurement unit to one of the available default quantities
  • to be able to define the personalized user quantities

These last three points should be carried out before opening and analyzing a Flux project, by means of the quantity and unit manager . This tool is accessible via the Flux supervisor.

Operating mode

The general operation of the manager of units is described in the table below.

Stage Description
1 The user opens the manager of quantities and units (access to the level of supervisor)
2

For each of the accessible quantity at the postprocessor level (B, H, E, D, J, T, …) the user :

  • Chooses the measurement unit with which he wishes to work

or

  • Defines his own measurement unit on the basis of the existing ones
3

The software stores all this information in a dictionary

(this dictionary is stored in the repertory of installation C:\Altair\Flux_N.N\Resources\UnityQty)
4

The user opens Flux at his working repertory.

At the postprocessing phase, all the sizes are displayed with the previously defined measurement unit (and stored in the dictionary)
Attention: The units defined in the working dictionary are available only at the level of the Postprocessor. They are not available at the level of the geometric and physical preprocessor.

Access manager

Access to the Quantity and unit manager is carried out outside Flux starting from the Supervisor in the Tools menu.

The dictionaries

The quantities and units supervised via the Quantity and unit manager are saved in dictionaries totally independent from the Flux project.

These dictionaries are stored in the installation directory: C:\Altair\Flux_2018.0\Resources\UnityQty

These dictionaries are presented in the table below.

Dictionary Function
DefaultUnitiesQty.dico

Reference dictionary 1:

Quantities and units proposed by default
DefaultUnitiesZone.dico

Reference dictionary 2:

List of units by default for each unit systems considered (International and US)
CurrentUnitiesQty.dico*

Current dictionary:

Current quantities and dictionaries, defined by the user
Note: * The manager of units can supervise one dictionary only Current UnitiesQty.dico. Some limitations :
  • If the user makes another change that he saves, the new saved dictionary will erase the previous one.
  • Both reference dictionaries can’t be modified.

Exchange of dictionary between users

The current dictionary (CurrentUnitiesQty) can easily be transmitted between users, it suffices to copy* it in the directory C:\Program Files\Altair\2019\flux\Flux\Resources\UnityQty

Note: *It is advisable to copy and replace the complete directory UnityQty, to avoid the developments which will take place during the next versions of the software, as the reference dictionary can evolve.

Upgrade the dictionary

The dictionary of reference is totally independent from the software version, and is easily updated by Altair.

It will be possible to transmit this dictionary to users between two launches of versions/patches so that the user can benefit from the updates of the reference dictionary.

To this purpose, the user will have to replace the« old » reference dictionary by a new reference dictionary, when a new version becomes available.