An isosurface (3-D contour surface) shows the 3-D volume bounded by a particular isovalue. The isosurface has the specified iso-level, the volume inside contains values greater (or less) than the isovalue. The volume outside contains values less (or greater) than the isovalue.
The first column of buttons in the control panel's button matrix controls isosurfaces. Clicking on one of these buttons with the left mouse button causes a pop-up window with a slider and OK button to appear below. Select an isovalue on the slider and click on the OK button to generate an isosurface for all time steps.
Toggling ANIMATE on will let you watch the time dynamics of the iso-level contour surfaces. Note that the surfaces are generated asynchronously with the animation, so you may not see the surfaces for all the time steps as the clock hand makes it revolution. The new surfaces will appear on successive clock revolutions.
Clicking on an isosurface button with the middle mouse button will summon the pop-up window without toggling the surface on or off.
An isosurface may either be drawn entirely in one color or colored according to the values of another physical variable.
To change the color of an isosurface, click on the appropriate isosurface button with the right mouse button. A window will appear with a column of variable names (first button labeled "monocolor") and four sliders labeled red, green, blue, and transparency.
By default, monocoloring is used. To change the isosurfaces's color just move the red, green, and blue sliders.
If you click on a button other than "monocolor" you will tell vis5d to draw the isosurface according to another physical variable. The red,green,blue sliders will be replaced with a color table editor. You can change the color table (which maps data values to colors) by drawing new curves with the mouse or by pressing the up, down, left, and right cursor keys on your keyboard.
As an example, suppose you're viewing the LAMPS.v5d data set. Make an isosurface of wind speed at 40 m/s. The isosurface should be blue. Click on the SPD isosurface button with your right mouse button. The color window appears. Click on the T button in that window and the isosurface will now be colored according to temperature. You can modify the mapping from temperature values to colors by "drawing" the red, green, and blue curves in the color table window with the mouse buttons or by pressing the cursor keys. Changing the color table is explained more below in the section about colored slices.