Daemons - Display Force Field

Owned by thomas (Unlicensed)
Last updated: 03 Jul, 2015
2 min read

A visible force field gives you a better idea of how a daemon acts. You are able to see the influence of specific settings, because all changes will be displayed in the viewport in realtime. Only position-based force daemons offer this feature. Excluded daemons are: 

  • All “k” daemons
  • “Color Plane”, “Heater”, “Texture Gizmo”, “Filter”, “Sheeter”
  • “Coriolis”, “Ellipsoid Force”, “Drag Force”, “Surface Tension”
  • Plugin daemons and scripted daemons

The reason, why daemons like “Coriolis” or “Ellipsoid Force” cannot be displayed is that they depend on a fluid's or object's velocity and this property is not known before the simulation starts.

 

 

Show field

With “Yes” you will see a box of 10 m x 10 m x 10 m. The forces are displayed as arrows of varying length and orientation, and can be adjusted with the “@ ...” parameters: 

  • An arrow's length is a direct measure for the force's strength at a specific point in space.
  • The arrowhead points in the force vector's direction.

All transformations, performed on the daemons, will affect the field's box immediately. You can move or animate the daemon's position through the field box.

@ spacing

This parameter defines the distance between the arrows in the field box in metres. A value of 0.5, for example, means that you will see one arrow each 0.5 metres.

@ magnitude scale

The value works like a factor it change the length (= magnitude) of the arrows: 2.0 will double an arrow's length, and the arrowheads will also be scaled. If the viewport representation becomes confusing we recommend increasing “@ spacing” and/or decreasing “@ magnitude scale”.

@ position

Change the field box's X, Y, and Z settings to get a view of a different area of the field. The values are given in metres. Click on “+” for sliders.

@ scale

If you want to adjust the box's size please enter values for the X, Y, and Z coordinates. The values are given in metres. Click on “+” for sliders.

EDIT field box

An alternative to the “@ position” and “@ scale” parameters is to press this button and use RealFlow's “Move” (W) and “Scale” (R) tools – the parameters under “Node” cannot be used. Click on this button again to prevent the box from unwanted changes. When you are in edit mode, the viewport shows a coloured frame.