NIST Special Publication 1017-1
 

Smokeview (Version 6) 

A Tool for Visualizing 

Fire Dynamics Simulation Data 

Volume I: User’s Guide 

Glenn P. Forney 

NIST Special Publication 1017-1
 

Smokeview (Version 6) 

A Tool for Visualizing 

Fire Dynamics Simulation Data 

Volume I: User’s Guide 

Glenn P. Forney 

Fire Research Division 

Engineering Laboratory 

August 2013 

Smokeview Version 6 

SVN Repository Revision : 16676 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

U.S. Department of Commerce 

Penny Pritzker, Secretary 

National Institute of Standards and Technology 

Patrick D. Gallagher, Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and Director 
Certain commercial entities, equipment, or materials may be identified in this 

document in order to describe an experimental procedure or concept adequately. Such 

identification is not intended to imply recommendation or endorsement by the 

National Institute of Standards and Technology, nor is it intended to imply that the 

entities, materials, or equipment are necessarily the best available for the purpose. 

National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 1017-1 

Natl. Inst. Stand. Technol. Spec. Publ. 1017-1, 179 pages (August 2013) 

CODEN: NSPUE2 
Preface 

This guide is part of a three volume set of companion documents describing how to use Smokeview in Volume I, the Smokeview User’s Guide [1], describing technical details of how the visualizations are performed 

in Volume II, the Smokeview Technical Reference Guide [2], and presents example cases verifying the various visualization capabilities of Smokeview in Volume III, the Smokeview Verification Guide [3]. Details 

on the use and technical background of the Fire Dynamics Simulator is contained in the FDS User’s [4] and 

Technical reference guide [5] respectively. This guide is Volume I the Smokeview User’s guide. 

Smokeview is a software tool designed to visualize numerical calculations generated by fire models 

such as the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of fire-driven 

fluid flow or CFAST, a zone fire model. Smokeview visualizes smoke and other attributes of the fire using 

traditional scientific methods such as displaying tracer particle flow, 2D or 3D shaded contours of gas flow 

data such as temperature and flow vectors showing flow direction and magnitude. Smokeview also visualizes 

fire attributes realistically so that one can experience the fire. This is done by displaying a series of partially 

transparent planes where the transparencies in each plane (at each grid node) are determined from soot 

densities computed by FDS. Smokeview also visualizes static data at particular times again using 2D or 3D 

contours of data such as temperature and flow vectors showing flow direction and magnitude. 

Smokeview and associated documentation for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X may be downloaded 

from the web site http://fire.nist.gov/fds at no cost. 

i
 
ii
 
About the Author 

Glenn Forney is a computer scientist at the Engineering Laboratory of NIST. He received a bachelor of 

science degree in mathematics from Salisbury State College and a master of science and a doctorate in 

mathematics from Clemson University. He joined NIST in 1986 (then the National Bureau of Standards) 

and has since worked on developing tools that provide a better understanding of fire phenomena, most 

notably Smokeview, a software tool for visualizing Fire Dynamics Simulator data. 

iii
 
iv
 
Disclaimer 

The US Department of Commerce makes no warranty, expressed or implied, to users of Smokeview, and 

accepts no responsibility for its use. Users of Smokeview assume sole responsibility under Federal law for 

determining the appropriateness of its use in any particular application; for any conclusions drawn from the 

results of its use; and for any actions taken or not taken as a result of analysis performed using this tools. 

Smokeview and the companion program FDS is intended for use only by those competent in the fields 

of fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, combustion, and heat transfer, and is intended only to supplement the 

informed judgment of the qualified user. These software packages may or may not have predictive capability 

when applied to a specific set of factual circumstances. Lack of accurate predictions could lead to erroneous 

conclusions with regard to fire safety. All results should be evaluated by an informed user. 

Throughout this document, the mention of computer hardware or commercial software does not constitute endorsement by NIST, nor does it indicate that the products are necessarily those best suited for the 

intended purpose. 

v
 
vi
 
Acknowledgements 

A number of people have made significant contributions to the development of Smokeview. In trying to 

acknowledge those that have contributed, we are inevitably going to miss a few people. Let us know and we 

will include those missed in the next version of this guide. 

The original version of Smokeview was inspired by Frames, a visualization program written by James 

Sims for the Silicon Graphics workstation. This software was based on visualization software written by 

Stuart Cramer for an Evans and Sutherland computer. Frames used tracer particles to visualize smoke flow 

computed by a pre-cursor to FDS. Judy Devaney made the multi-screen eight foot Rave facility available 

allowing a stereo version of Smokeview to be built that can display scenes in 3D. Both Steve Satterfield 

and Tere Griffin on many occasions helped me demonstrate Smokeview cases on the Rave inspiring many 

people to the possibility of using Smokeview as a virtual reality-like fire fighter training facility. 

Many conversations with Nelson Bryner, Dave Evans, Anthony Hamins and Doug Walton were most 

helpful in determining how Smokeview could be adapted for use in fire fighter training applications. 

Smokeview would not be possible without the use of a number of software libraries developed by others. 

Mark Kilgard while at Silicon Graphics developed GLUT, the basic tool kit for interfacing OpenGL with the 

underlying operating system on multiple computer platforms. Paul Rademacher while a graduate student at 

the University of North Carolina developed GLUI, the software library for implementing the user friendly 

dialog boxes. 

Significant contributions have been made by those that have used Smokeview to visualize complex 

cases; cases that are used to perform both applied and basic research. The resulting feedback has improved 

Smokeview as a result of their interaction with me, pushing the envelope and not accepting the status quo. 

For applied research, Daniel Madrzykowski, Doug Walton and Robert Vettori of NIST have used 

Smokeview to analyze fire incidents. Steve Kerber has used Smokeview to visualize flows resulting from 

positive pressure ventilation (PPV) fans. David Stroup has used Smokeview to analyze cases for use in fire 

fighter training scenarios. Conversations with Doug Walton have been particularly helpful in identifying 

needed features and clarifying how best to make their implementation user friendly. David Evans, William 

(Ruddy) Mell and Ronald Rehm used Smokeview to visualize wildland-urban interface fires. For basic 

research, Greg Linteris has used Smokeview to visualize fire simulations involving the cone calorimeter. 

Anthony Hamins has used Smokeview to visualize the structure of CH4/air flames undergoing the transition from normal to microgravity conditions and fire suppression in a compartment. Jiann Yang has used 

Smokeview to visualize smoke or particle number density and saturation ratio of condensable vapor. 

This user’s guide has improved through the many constructive comments of the reviewers Anthony 

Hamins, Doug Walton, Ronald Rehm, and David Sheppard. Chuck Bouldin helped port Smokeview to the 

Macintosh. 

Many people have sent in multiple comments and feedback by email, in particular Adrian Brown, Scot 

Deal, Charlie Fleischmann, Jason Floyd, Simo Hostikka, Bryan Klein, Davy Leroy, Dave McGill, Brian 

McLaughlin, Derek Nolan, Steven Olenick, Stephen Priddy, Boris Stock, Jason Sutula, Javier Trelles, and 

Christopher Wood. 

Feedback is encouraged and may be sent to glenn.forney@nist.gov . 

vii
 
viii
 
Contents 

Preface i
 

About the Author iii
 

Disclaimer v
 

I Using Smokeview 1
 

1 Introduction 3
 

1.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
 

1.2 Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
 

1.2.1 Visualizing Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
 

1.2.2 Exploring Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
 

1.2.3 Exploring the Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
 

1.2.4 Automating the Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
 

1.2.5 Customizing the Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
 

1.3 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
 

1.3.1 Obtaining Smokeview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
 

1.3.2 Running Smokeview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
 

2 Manipulating the Scene 11
 

2.1 World View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
 

2.2 First Person View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
 

3 Visualizing Smoke 15
 

3.1 Tracers and Streaklines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
 

3.2 Realistic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
 

4 Visualizing Data Quantitatively 19
 

4.1 2D Shaded Contours and Vector Slices - Slice Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
 

4.1.1 Axis aligned slices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
 

4.1.2 3D slices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
 

4.1.3 Fractional effective dose (FED) slices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
 

4.2 2D Shaded Contours on Solid Surfaces - Boundary Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
 

4.3 3D Contours - Isosurface Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
 

4.3.1 Isosurfaces from particle files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
 

4.3.2 Isosurfaces from fractional effective dose data (generated by Smokeview) . . . . . . 31
 

4.4 Device data - .csv files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
 

ix
 
4.5 Static Data - Plot3D Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
 

5 Visualizing Zone Fire Data 37
 

II Controlling and Customizing Smokeview 41
 

6 Setting Options 43
 

6.1 Setting Data Bounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
 

6.2 3D Smoke Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
 

6.3 Plot3D Viewing Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
 

6.3.1 2D contours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
 

6.3.2 Iso-Contours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
 

6.3.3 Flow vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
 

6.4 Display Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
 

6.4.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
 

6.4.2 Stereo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
 

6.5 Clipping Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
 

7 Creating Custom Objects 57
 

7.1 Object File Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
 

7.2 Elementary Geometric Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
 

7.3 Visual Transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
 

7.4 Arithmetic Transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
 

7.5 Logical and Conditional Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
 

8 Manipulating the Scene Automatically - The Touring Option 71
 

8.1 Tour Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
 

8.2 Key frame Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
 

8.3 Setting up a tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
 

9 Running Smokeview Automatically - The Scripting Option 77
 

9.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
 

9.2 Creating a Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
 

9.2.1 Example 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
 

9.2.2 Example 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
 

9.3 Script Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
 

9.3.1 Loading and Unloading Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
 

9.3.2 Controlling the Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
 

9.3.3 Rendering Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
 

III Miscellaneous Topics 91
 

10 Coloring Data 93
 

10.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
 

10.2 Using the Colorbar Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
 

11 Smokeview - Demonstrator Mode 97
 

x
 
12 Texture Maps 99 

13 Using Smokeview to Debug FDS Input Files 101
 

13.1 Examining Blockages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
 

14 Making Movies 103
 

15 Annotating the Scene 105
 

15.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
 

15.2 User Ticks Settings Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
 

15.3 User Label Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
 

15.4 TICKS and LABEL keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
 

16 Utilities 111
 

16.1 Compressing Data - Using Smokezip to reduce FDS file sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
 

16.2 Differencing Data - Using Smokediff to compare two FDS cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
 

16.3 Background - A utility to run multiple programs simultaneously . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
 

17 Summary 117
 

Bibliography 119
 

References 120
 

IV Appendices 121
 

Appendices 123
 

A Command Line Options 123
 

B Menu Options 125
 

B.1 Main . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
 

B.2 Load/Unload . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
 

B.3 Show/Hide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
 

B.3.1 Geometry Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
 

B.3.2 Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
 

B.3.3 Data coloring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
 

B.3.4 Viewpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
 

B.3.5 Flip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
 

B.3.6 Animated Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
 

B.3.7 Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
 

B.3.8 Boundary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
 

B.3.9 Animated Vector Slice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
 

B.3.10 Animated Slice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
 

B.3.11 Plot3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
 

B.3.12 Textures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
 

B.4 Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
 

B.4.1 Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
 

B.4.2 Rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
 

xi
 
B.4.3 Max Frame Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
 

B.4.4 Render . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
 

B.4.5 Tours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
 

B.4.6 Font Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
 

B.5 Dialogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
 

C Keyboard Shortcuts 137
 

C.1 alphanumeric shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
 

C.2 ALT shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
 

C.3 Special character short cuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
 

D File Formats and Extensions 141
 

D.1 FDS and Smokeview File Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
 

D.1.1 FDS file extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
 

D.1.2 Smokeview file extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
 

D.2 Smokeview Bound File Format (.bini files) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
 

D.3 Smokeview Preference File Format (.ini files) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
 

D.3.1 Color parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
 

D.3.2 Size parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
 

D.3.3 Time, Chop and value bound parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
 

D.3.4 Data loading parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
 

D.3.5 Viewing parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
 

D.3.6 Tour Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
 

D.3.7 Realistic Smoke Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
 

D.3.8 Zone Fire Modeling Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
 

D.4 Smokeview Parameter Input File (.smv file) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
 

D.4.1 Geometry Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
 

D.4.2 File Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
 

D.4.3 Device (sensor) Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
 

D.4.4 Zone Modeling Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
 

D.4.5 Miscellaneous Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
 

D.5 CAD/GE1 file format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
 

D.6 Objects.svo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
 

xii
 
List of Figures
 

1.1 FDS file overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
 

2.1	 Motion/View/Render dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
 

3.1	 Townhouse kitchen fire visualized using tracer particles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
 

3.2	 Townhouse kitchen fire visualized using streak lines. The pin heads shows flow conditions
 

at 10 s, the corresponding tails shows conditions 1.0 s earlier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
 

3.3	 Smoke3d file snapshots at various times in a simulation of a townhouse kitchen fire. . . . . 18
 

4.1	 Slice file snapshots of shaded temperature contours. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
 

4.2	 Vector slice file snapshots of shaded vector plots. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
 

4.3	 Slice file snapshots illustrating old and new method for coloring data. . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
 

4.4	 Motion/View/Render dialog box - General slice regions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
 

4.5	 General oriented temperature slices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
 

4.6	 FED slices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
 

4.7	 Boundary file snapshots of shaded wall temperatures contours (cell averaged data). . . . . . 27
 

4.8	 Boundary file snapshots of truncated shaded wall temperatures contours (cell averaged data). 28
 

4.9	 Boundary file snapshots of shaded wall temperatures contours (cell centered data). . . . . . 29
 

4.10	 Isosurface file snapshots of temperature levels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
 

4.11	 Fire plume visualized using particles and isosurfaces generated from particles. . . . . . . . . 32
 

4.12	 FED slices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
 

4.13	 Devices dialog box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
 

4.14	 Plot3D contour and vector plot examples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
 

4.15	 Plot3D isocontour example. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
 

5.1	 CFAST 6.0 test showing upper/lower layer temperatures and vent flow visualized using color. 38
 

5.2	 CFAST 6.0 test showing upper/lower layer temperatures and vent flow. Layers are visualized realistically and vent flow is visualized using color. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
 

6.1	 File/Bounds dialog box showing Plot3D file options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
 

6.2	 File/Bounds dialog box showing slice and boundary file options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
 

6.3	 Ceiling Jet Visualization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
 

6.4	 Dialog Box for setting slice rendered 3D smoke options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
 

6.5	 Dialog Box for setting volume rendered 3D smoke options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
 

6.6	 Dialog Box for setting miscellaneous Smokeview scene properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
 

6.7	 Dialog Box for setting selecting colormaps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
 

6.8	 Stereo pair view of a townhouse kitchen fire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
 

6.9	 Red/blue stereo pair view of a townhouse kitchen fire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
 

6.10	 Red/cyan stereo pair view of a townhouse kitchen fire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
 

6.11	 Dialog box for activating the stereo view option. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
 

xiii
 
6.12 Clipping dialog box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
 

6.13 Clipping a scene. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
 

7.1	 Object file format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
 

7.2	 Instructions for drawing a sensor along with the corresponding Smokeview view. . . . . . . 60
 

7.3	 Instructions for drawing an inactive and active heat detector along with the corresponding
 

Smokeview view. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
 

7.4	 Instructions for drawing the dynamic object, ball, along with the corresponding FDS input
 

lines and the Smokeview view. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
 

7.5	 Smokeview view of several objects defined in the objects.svo file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
 

8.1	 Overhead view of the townhouse example showing the default Circle tour. . . . . . . . . . . 72
 

8.2	 Touring dialog box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
 

8.3	 Tutorial examples for Tour option. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
 

9.1	 Script dialog box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
 

9.2	 Script commands generated using the Smokeview script recorder option. . . . . . . . . . . . 79
 

9.3	 Smokeview images generated using script detailed in Fig. 9.2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
 

9.4	 Script commands generated using the Smokeview script recorder option. . . . . . . . . . . . 83
 

9.5	 Smokeview images generated using script detailed in Fig. 9.4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
 

10.1	 Colorbar Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
 

10.2	 Colorbar Editor dialog box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
 

11.1	 Demonstrator dialog box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
 

12.1	 Texture map example. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
 

13.1	 Examine blockages dialog box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
 

15.1	 Ticks dialog box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
 

15.2	 Annotation example using the Ticks dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
 

15.3	 User Label dialog box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
 

15.4	 TICKS and LABEL commands used to create image in Fig. 15.5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
 

15.5	 Annotation example using the TICKS and LABEL keyword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
 

16.1	 Compress Files and Autoload dialog box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
 

16.2	 Slice file snapshots of differenced temperature data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
 

B.1	 Main Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
 

B.2	 Load/Unload Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
 

B.3	 Show/Hide Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
 

B.4	 Geometry Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
 

B.5	 Label Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
 

B.6	 Data Coloring Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
 

B.7	 Option Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
 

B.8	 Render Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
 

B.9	 Tour Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
 

B.10 Dialogs Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
 

xiv
 
List of Tables 

2.1 Keyboard mappings for eye centered or first person scene movement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
 

D.1 Descriptions of parameters used by the Smokeview OBST keyword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
 

D.2 Descriptions of parameters used by the Smokeview VENT and CVENT keywords. . . . . . . 160
 

xv
 
xvi
 
Part I
 

Using Smokeview
 

1
 

Chapter 1 

Introduction 

1.1 Overview 

Smokeview is a scientific software tool designed for visualizing numerical predictions generated by fire 

models such as the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of firedriven fluid flow [6] and CFAST, a zone model of compartment fire phenomena [7]. This report documents 

version 6 of Smokeview. For details on setting up and running FDS cases read the FDS User’s guide [4]. 

FDS and Smokeview are primarily used to model and visualize time-varying fire phenomena. FDS and 

Smokeview are not limited to fire simulation, however. For example, one may use these applications to 

model other phenomena such as contaminant flow in a building or evacuation flow. Smokeview performs 

visualizations by displaying time dependent tracer particle flow, animated contour slices of computed gas 

variables and surface data. Smokeview also presents contours and vector plots of static data anywhere within 

a simulation scene at a fixed time. Several examples using these techniques to investigate fire incidents are 

documented in Refs. [8, 9, 10, 11]. 

Smokeview is used before, during and after model runs. Smokeview is used in a post-processing step to 

visualize FDS data after a calculation has been completed. Smokeview may also be used during a calculation 

to monitor a simulation’s progress and before a calculation to setup FDS input files more quickly. Figure 1.1 

gives an overview of how data files used by FDS, Smokeview and Smokezip, a program used to compress 

FDS generated data files, are related. 

Smokeview is written in both the programming languages C [12] and Fortran 2003 [13]. It consists of 

about 115 000 lines of code. The C portion visualizes the data, while the Fortran 2003 portion reads in data 

generated by FDS (also written in Fortran 2003). Smokeview uses the 3D graphics library OpenGL [14] 

for generating the visualizations and the Graphics Library Utility Toolkit (GLUT) [15] for interacting with 

the underlying OS. Smokeview uses the GLUT software library so that most of the development effort can 

be spent implementing the visualizations rather than creating an elaborate user interface. Smokeview uses a 

number of auxiliary libraries to implement image capture (GD [16, 17], PNG [18], JPEG [19]), image and 

general file compression (ZLIB [20]) and dialog creation (GLUI [21]). Each of these libraries is portable 

running under UNIX, LINUX, OS X and Windows 9x/2000/XP/Vista allowing Smokeview to run on these 

platforms as well. 

1.2 Features 

Smokeview is a program designed to visualize numerical calculations generated by the Fire Dynamics Simulator. The version of FDS used to run the cases illustrated in this report is given by: 

3
 
Display

Smokeview

Boundary (.bf.svz)

3d smoke (.s3d.svz)

Particle (.part.svz)

Slice/vector (.sf.svz)

Iso-surface (.iso.svz)

Compressed

Smokezip

FDS

Config

.ini

Smokeview

Input (.smv)

Boundary (.bf)

3d smoke (.s3d)

Particle (.prt5)

Slice/vector (.sf)

Iso-surface (.iso)

Plot3D (.q) devc (.csv)

hrr (.csv)

Input

(.fds)

Figure 1.1: Diagram illustrating files used and created by the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), Smokezip 

and Smokeview. 

4
 
Fire Dynamics Simulator 

Version: FDS 6, Release Candidate 4; MPI Disabled; OpenMP Disabled 

SVN Revision Number: 16557 

Compile Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 

Consult FDS Users Guide Chapter, Running FDS, for further instructions. 

Hit Enter to Escape... 

The version of Smokeview described here and used to generate most figures in this report is given by: 

Smokeview 6.1.2 - Aug 13 2013 

Version: 6.1.2 

Smokeview (64 bit) Revision Number: 16567 

Platform: WIN64 (Intel C/C++) 

Build Date: Aug 13 2013 

1.2.1 Visualizing Data 

Smokeview visualizes data primarily generated by FDS. Smokeview visualizes data that is both dynamic 

and static. Dynamic data is visualized by animating particle flow (showing location and values of tracer 

particles), 2D contour slices (both within the domain and on solid surfaces) and 3D iso surfaces. 2D contour 

slices can also be drawn with colored vectors that use velocity data to show flow direction, speed and value. 

Static data is visualized similarly by drawing 2D contours, vector plots and 3D level surfaces. 

Particles 

Lagrangian or moving particles (Section 3.1) may be used to visualize the flow field. Often these particles 

represent smoke or water droplets. Particles may also be used to represent people when modeling evacuation 

flow. 

Particle data may also be visualized as streak lines (a particle drawn where it has been for a short period 

of time in the past). Streak lines are a good method for displaying motion using static images. 

Volumetric - Realistic Smoke 

Smoke and fire (heat release rate per unit volume) are displayed realistically using a series of partially transparent planes (Section 3.2). The smoke transparencies are determined by using smoke densities computed 

by FDS. The fire and sprinkler spray transparencies are determined by using a heuristic based on heat release 

rate and water density data, again computed by FDS. Various settings for the 3D smoke option may be set 

using the 3D Smoke dialog box found in the Dialogs menu. The windows version of Smokeview uses the 

graphical processing unit (GPU) on the video card to perform some of the calculations required to visualize 

smoke. 

Slices - 2D contours 

Animated 2D shaded color contour plots (Section 4.1) are used to visualize gas phase information, such as 

temperature or density. The contour plots are drawn in horizontal or vertical planes along any coordinate 

5
 
direction. Contours can also be drawn in shades of gray. Shaded contours may also be used to visualize 

information computed on solid objects (Section 4.2). These contours are known as boundary files. 

Animated 2D shaded color contour plots are also used to visualize solid phase quantities such as radiative flux or heat release rate per unit area. 

Vector slice files may be visualized if U, V and W velocity slice files are recorded. Though similar 

to solidly shaded contour animations (the vector colors are the same as the corresponding contour colors), 

vector animations are better than solid contour animations for highlighting flow features since vectors accentuate the direction that flow is occurring. 

A 3D region of data may be visualized using slice files. Slices may be moved from one plane to the next 

just as with Plot3D files (using up/down cursor keys or page up/page down keys). 3D slices may also be 

rotated and/or translated by double clicking and moving the mouse. If the ALT key is also pressed, the slice 

moves up and down. If the CTRL key is pressed the slice moves side to side. Otherwise, the slice rotates. 

Data for 3D slice files are generated by specifying a 3D rather than a 2D region with the &SLCF keyword. 

Data computed at cell centers rather than interpolated at cell nodes may be visualized. This is useful for 

investigating numerical algorithms as the data visualized has not been interpolated before being seen. 

Surfaces - 3D contours 

Isosurface or 3D level surface animations (Section 4.3) may be used to represent flame boundaries, layer 

interfaces and various other gas phase variables. Multiple isocontours may be stored in one file, allowing 

one to view several isosurface levels simultaneously. 

1.2.2 Exploring Data 

Data Mining 

The user can analyze and examine the simulated data by altering its appearance to more easily identify 

features and behaviors found in the simulation data. One may flip or reverse the order of colors in the 

colorbar and also click in the colorbar and slide the mouse to highlight data values in the scene. These 

options may be found under the Options/Shades menu. 

The user may click in the time bar and slide the mouse to change the simulation time displayed. One use 

for the time bar and color bar selection modes might be to determine when smoke of a particular temperature 

enters a room. 

Data Filtering 

The File/Bounds Settings... dialog box allows one to set bounds, to chop or hide data and in the case of slice 

file data to time average. (Chapter 6) The data chopping feature is useful for highlighting data. A ceiling jet, 

for example, may be visualized by hiding ambient temperature data, data below a prescribed temperature. 

Using time averaging allows one to smooth noisy data over a user selectable time interval. 

Data coloring 

Multiple colorbars are available for displaying simulation data. New colorbars may be created using the colorbar editor (Section 10.2). Colorbars may then be adapted to best highlight the simulation data visualized. 

Regions in the simulation with certain data values may be highlighted by clicking on the colorbar. 

6
 
Data Compression 

An option has been added to the LOAD/UNLOAD menu to compress 3D smoke and boundary files (Section 16.1). The option shells out to the program Smokezip which runs in the background enabling one to 

continue to use Smokeview while files are compressing. 

Data Comparison 

A stand alone utility program named Smokediff may be used to compare two FDS cases (Section 16.2). 

Smokediff generates the difference between corresponding slice and boundary files for two cases with the 

same geometry. Smokediff creates a .smv of the differenced data which may then be viewed with Smokeview. 

1.2.3 Exploring the Scene 

Motion/View/Render 

The Motion/View/Render dialog box may be used to allow more precise control of scene movement and 

orientation. Cursor keys have been mapped to scene translation/rotation to allow easy navigation within the 

scene. Viewpoints may be saved for later access. 

The first person or eye view mode for moving allows one to move through a scene more realistically 

(Section 2.2). Using the cursor keys and the mouse, one can move through a scene virtually. 

Stereo views 

A method for displaying stereo/3D images has been implemented that does not require any specialized 

equipment such as shuttered glasses or quad buffered enabled video cards (Section 6.4.2) . Stereo pair 

images are displayed side by side after invoking the option with the Stereo dialog box or pressing the “S” 

key (upper case). A 3D view appears by relaxing the eyes, allowing the two images to merge into one. 

Pressing the “S” key again results in stereo views generated by displaying red and blue versions of the 

scene. Glasses with a red left lens and a blue right lens are required to view the image. 

Scene Clipping 

It is often difficult to visualize data in complicated geometries due to the number of obstructed surfaces. 

Interior portions of the scene may be seen more easily by clipping part of the scene away. (Section 6.5) 

Clipping discussed above occurs in 3D within the scene. A screenshot converted to a PNG or JPEG file 

may also be clipped or cropped using the Render portion of the Motion/View/Render dialog box. 

1.2.4 Automating the Visualization 

Virtual Tour 

A series of checkpoints or key frames specifying position and view direction may be specified. (Chapter 8) 

A smooth path is computed using Kochanek-Bartels splines [22] to go through these key frames so that one 

may control the position and view direction of an observer as they move through the simulation. One can 

then see the simulation as the observer would. This option is available under the Tour menu item. Existing 

tours may be edited and new tours may be created using the Tour dialog box found in the Dialogs menu. 

Tour settings are stored in the local configuration file (casename.ini). 

7
 
Scripting 

Smokeview may be run in an unattended mode using instructions found in a script file. (Chapter 9) These 

instructions direct Smokeview to load data files, load configuration files, set view points and time values in 

order to document a case by rendering the Smokeview scene into one or more image files. The script file 

may be created by Smokeview as a user performs various actions or may be created by editing a text file. 

1.2.5 Customizing the Scene 

Objects 

A method for drawing realistic appearing objects such as a heat detector, smoke detector, sprinkler sensor, 

etc. has been implemented. (Chapter 7) . Objects are specified in a data file rather than in Smokeview as C 

code. This allows one to customize the look and feel of the objects (to match the types of detectors/sprinklers 

that are being used) without requiring code changes in Smokeview. 

Texture Mapping 

Image files may be drawn over top of a blockage, vent or enclosure boundary (Chapter 12). This is called 

texture mapping. This allows Smokeview scenes to appear more realistic. These image files may be obtained 

from the internet, a digital camera, a scanner or from any other source that generates these file formats. 

Image files used for texture mapping should be seamless. A seamless texture as the name suggests is periodic 

in both horizontal and vertical directions. This is an especially important requirement when textures are tiled 

or repeated across a blockage surface. 

Annotating Cases 

Text may be addedto a scene in order to help document Smokeview output. (Chapter 15) It allows one to 

place colored labels at specified locations at specified times. A second keyword, TICK keyword places 

equally spaced tick marks between specified bounds. These marks along with LABEL text may be used to 

specify length scales in the scene. 

The User Tick Settings tab of the Display dialog box provides an easier way to place ticks with length 

annotations along coordinate axes. 

1.3 Getting Started 

1.3.1 Obtaining Smokeview 

Smokeview is available at http://fire.nist.gov/fds. This site contains links to various installation packages for different operating systems. It also contains documentation for Smokeview and FDS, 

sample FDS calculations, software updates and links for requesting feedback about the software. 

After obtaining the setup program, install Smokeview on the PC by either entering the setup program 

name from the Windows Start/Run... menu or by double-clicking the downloaded Smokeview setup program. The setup program then steps through the program installation. It copies the FDS and Smokeview 

executables, sample cases, documentation and the Smokeview preference file smokeview.ini to the a 

default directory. The setup program also defines PATH variables and associates the .smv file extension 

to the Smokeview program so that one may either type Smokeview at any command line prompt or double click on any .smv file. Smokeview uses the OpenGL graphics library which is a part of all Windows 

distributions. 

8
 
Most computers purchased today are perfectly adequate for running Smokeview. For Smokeview it 

is more important to obtain a fast graphics card than a fast CPU. If the computer will run both FDS and 

Smokeview, then it is important to obtain a fast CPU as well. For example, the townhouse case used for 

many examples in this report consists of about 23000 grid cells. This case requires about 10 CPU minutes 

on a 2.0 GHZ Intel Core i7-2630QM Windows 7 system. Cases with more grid cells and longer simulation 

times (the townhouse case simulated 60 s of smoke flow) would clearly benefit from a faster CPU and more 

memory which are now relatively inexpensive. 

1.3.2 Running Smokeview 

A typical procedure for using FDS and Smokeview is to: 

1. Create a file named casename.fds describing the fire scenario. 

2. Type fds casename.fds in a command shell to run the case. 

3. Double click on the file named casename.smv (if on the PC) or type smokeview casename in a 

command shell (on other platforms) to start Smokview. 

4. Right clicking within the scene and select a file to load within the Load/Unload menu. 

This report documents step 3 and 4. Steps 1 and 2 are documented in the FDS User’s Guide [4]. 

Menus in Smokeview are activated by clicking the right mouse button anywhere within the Smokeview 

window. Data files may be visualized by selecting the desired Load/Unload menu option. Other menu options are discussed in Appendix B. Many menu commands have equivalent keyboard shortcuts. These shortcuts are listed in Smokeview’s Help menu and are described in Appendix C. Visualization features not controllable through the menus may be customized by using the Smokeview preference file, smokeview.ini 

, discussed in Appendix D.3. 

Smokeview is started on a Windows PC by double-clicking the file named casename.smv where 

casename is the name specified by the CHID keyword defined in the FDS input data file. Menus are accessed 

by clicking with the right mouse button. The Load/Unload menu may be used to read in the data files to be 

visualized. The Show/Hide menu may be used to change how the visualizations are presented. For the most 

part, the menu choices are self explanatory. Menu items exist for showing and hiding various simulation 

elements, creating screen dumps, obtaining help, etc. Menu items are described in Appendix B. 

To use Smokeview from a command line, open a command shell. Then change to the directory containing the FDS case to be viewed and type: 

smokeview casename 

where again casename is the name specified by the CHID keyword defined in the FDS input data file. 

Data files may be loaded and options may be selected by clicking the right mouse button and picking the 

appropriate menu item. 

Smokeview opens two windows, one displays the scene and the other displays status information. Closing either window will end the Smokeview session. Multiple copies of Smokeview may be run simultaneously if the computer has adequate resources. 

Normally Smokeview is run during an FDS run, after the run has completed and as an aid in setting up 

FDS cases by visualizing geometric components such as blockages, vents, sensors, etc. One can then verify 

that these modeling elements have been defined and located as intended. One may select the color of these 

elements using color parameters in the smokeview.ini to help distinguish one element from another. 

smokeview.ini file entries are described in section D.3. 

9
 
Although specific video card brands cannot be recommended, they should be high-end due to Smokeview’s intensive graphics requirements. These requirements will only increase in the future as more features 

are added. A video card designed to perform well for fancy computer games should do well for Smokeview. 

Some apparent bugs in Smokeview have been found to be the result of problems found in video cards on 

older computers. 

10
 
Chapter 2 

Manipulating the Scene 

A Smokeview scene may be manipulated using two different reference points, the scene center and the user 

location. Motion about the scene center is called world or global view while motion about the user location 

is called eye or first person view. These view methods may be switched by pressing the “e” key or by 

selecting the appropriate radio button in the Motion/View/Render dialog box. 

2.1 World View 

The scene may be rotated or translated directly using the mouse or by using controls in the Motion/View/Render dialog box. This dialog box, illustrated in Fig. 2.1a, is opened using the Dialogs>Motion/View/Render 

menu item. 

Clicking on the scene and dragging the mouse horizontally, vertically or a combination of both results 

in scene rotation or translation depending upon whether the modifier keys CTRL or ALT are pressed or not. 

no modifier keys Horizontal mouse movement results in scene rotation about the Z axis. Vertical mouse 

movement results in scene rotation about the X axis. If the 3-axis rotation option is selected then 

mouse movement around the periphery of the scene results in clockwise or counter clockwise 

movement about the Y axis. 

CTRL key depressed Horizontal mouse movement results in scene translation from side to side along 

the X axis. Vertical mouse movement results in scene translation in and out of the along the Y 

axis. 

ALT key depressed Vertical mouse movement results in scene translation up and down along the Z 

axis. Horizontal mouse movement has no effect. 

The Motion/View/Render dialog box may be used to move the scene in a more controlled manner. Buttons in the Motion region allows one to translate or rotate the scene. The Horizontal button allows one 

to translate the scene horizontally in a left/right or in/out direction while the Vertical button allows one 

to translate the scene in an up/down direction. 

Controls in the Window Properties region of the Motion/View/Render dialog box allow one to change 

the scene magnification or zoom factor and the projection method used to draw objects (perspective or size 

preserving). These two projection methods differ in how objects are displayed at a distance. A perspective 

11
 
a) Scene motion and Viewpoints b) Render image and Scaling 

Figure 2.1: Motion/View/Render dialog box - Dialog box for controlling scene movement and orientation, 

specifying window sizes, rendering images, defining and selecting viewpoints and scaling the scene. This 

dialog box is invoked by selecting Dialogs>Motion/View/Render menu item. 

12
 
projection for-shortens or draws an object smaller when drawn at a distance. An isometric or size preserving 

projection on the other hand draws an objects the same size regardless of where it is drawn in the scene. 

Controls in the Render and Scaling Depth regions, as illustrated in Fig. 2.1b, allow one to render images 

using either PNG or JPEG image file formats and to scale the Smokeview scene (say for visualizing tunnel 

scenarios) in any or all of the coordinate directions. 

The zoom and aperture edit boxes allow one to change the magnification of the scene or equivalently 

the angle of view across the scene. The relation between these two parameters is given by 

zoom = tan(45◦

/2)/tan(aperture/2) (2.1) 

A default aperture of 45◦ is chosen so that Smokeview scenes have a normal perspective. 

View may be used to reset the scene back to either an external, internal (to the scene), or previously 

saved viewpoint. 

Rotate about A pull down list appears in multi-mesh cases allowing one to change the rotation center. 

Therefore one could rotate the scene about the center of the entire physical domain or about the 

center of any one particular mesh. This is handy when meshes are defined far apart. 

Rotation Buttons Rotation buttons are enabled or disabled as appropriate for the mode of scene motion. 

For example, if about world center - level rotations has been selected, then the Rotate X 

and Rotate eye buttons are disabled. A rotation button labeled 90 deg has been added 

to allow one to rotate 90 degrees while in eye center mode. This is handy when one wishes to 

move down a long corridor precisely parallel to one of the walls. The first click of 90 deg snaps 

the view to the closest forward or side direction while each additional click rotates the view 90 

degrees clockwise. 

View Buttons A viewpoint is the combination of a location and a view direction. Several new buttons 

have been added to this dialog box to save and restore viewpoints. The scene is manipulated to 

the desired orientation then stored by pressing the Add button which adds the new viewpoint 

or the Replace button which replaces this viewpoint with the currently selected one. To 

change the view to a currently stored viewpoint, use the Select listbox to select the desired 

viewpoint. The Delete button may be used to remove a viewpoint from the stored list. 

The View name text box may be used to change the name or label for the selected viewpoint. 

The view at startup button is used to specify the viewpoint that should be set when 

Smokeview first starts up. 

2.2 First Person View 

First person view is entered by either pressing the appropriate radio buttons in the Motion/View/Render 

dialog box (button labeled eye centered) or by pressing the “e” key until first person view is obtained. When 

in eye center mode, several key mappings have been added, inspired by popular computer games, to allow 

for easier movement within the scene. For example, the up and down cursor keys allow one to move forward 

or backwards. The left and right cursor keys allow one to rotate left or right. Other keyboard mappings are 

described in Table 2.1. 

13
 
Table 2.1: Keyboard mappings for eye centered or first person scene movement.
 

Key Description 

up/down cursor 

w/s move forward/backward 

ALT + left/right cursor 

a/d slide left/right 

ALT + up/down cursor move up/down 

left/right cursor rotate left/right 

Page Up/Down look up/down 

Home look level 

Pressing the SHIFT key while moving, sliding or rotating results in a 4x speedup of these actions. 

14
 
Chapter 3 

Visualizing Smoke 

3.1 Tracers and Streaklines 

Particle files contain the locations of tracer particles used to visualize the flow field. Figure 3.1 shows several 

snapshots of a developing kitchen fire visualized by using particles where particles are colored black. If 

present, sprinkler water droplets would be colored blue. Particles are stored in files ending with the extension 

.prt5 and are displayed by selecting the particle file entry from the Load/Unload menu. 

Streaklines are a technique for showing motion in a still image. Figure 3.2 shows a snapshot of the same 

kitchen fire using streak lines instead of particles. The streaks begin at 9 s and end at 10 s. 

Particle file data may be converted to an isosurface using Smokezip. The isosurface location is defined in 

terms of particle density and the isosurface color is defined in terms of averaged particle values. See Chapter 

16.1 for more details on using Smokezip for generating isosurface files from particle files and Section 4.3 

for some examples. 

3.2 Realistic 

FDS generates several data files visualized by Smokeview. Each file type may be loaded or unloaded using 

the Load/Unload menu described in Appendix B.2. Visualizations produced by these data files are described 

in this and the following sections. The format used to store each of the data files is given in the FDS User’s 

Guide [4]. 

Visualizing smoke realistically is a daunting challenge for at least three reasons. First, the storage 

requirements for describing smoke can easily exceed the disk capacities of present 32 bit operating systems 

such as Linux, i.e., file sizes can easily exceed 2 gigabytes. Second, the computation required both by the 

CPU and the video card to display each frame can easily exceed 0.1 s, the time corresponding to a 10 frame/s 

display rate. Third, the physics required to describe smoke and its interactions with itself and surrounding 

light sources is complex and computationally intensive. Therefore, approximations and simplifications are 

required to display smoke rapidly. 

Smoke visualization techniques such as tracer particles or shaded 2D contours are useful for quantitative 

analysis but not suitable for virtual reality applications, where displays need to be realistic and fast as well as 

accurate. The approach taken by Smokeview is to display a series of parallel planes. Each plane is colored 

black (for smoke) with transparency values pre-computed by FDS using time dependent soot densities also 

computed by FDS corresponding to the grid spacings of the simulation. The transparencies are adjusted 

in real time by Smokeview to account for differing path lengths through the smoke as the view direction 

15
 
5.0 s 10.0 s
 

30.0 s 60.0 s
 

Figure 3.1: Townhouse kitchen fire visualized using tracer particles.
 

16
 
Figure 3.2: Townhouse kitchen fire visualized using streak lines. The pin heads shows flow conditions at 

10 s, the corresponding tails shows conditions 1.0 s earlier. 

17
 
5.0 s 10.0 s
 

30.0 s 60.0 s 

Figure 3.3: Smoke3d file snapshots at various times in a simulation of a townhouse kitchen fire. 

changes. The graphics hardware then combines the planes together to form one image. 

Fire by default is colored a dark shade of orange wherever the computed heat release rate per unit volume 

exceeds a user-defined cutoff value. The visual characteristics of fire are not automatically accounted for. 

The user though may use the 3D Smoke dialog box to change both the color and transparency of the fire for 

fires that have non-standard colors and opacities. 

The windows version of Smokeview has the option of using the GPU or graphics programming unit to 

perform some of the calculations required to visualize realistic smoke. These calculations consist of adjusting the smoke opaqueness as pre-computed in FDS to account for off-axis viewing directions. The GPU 

performs the computations in parallel while the former method using the CPU performs them sequentially. 

For many (but not all) cases, the use of the GPU results in a smoke drawing speed up of 50 % or more. This 

option is turned on or off by pressing the G key. 

Figure 3.3 illustrates a visualization of realistic smoke. 

18
 
Chapter 4 

Visualizing Data Quantitatively 

4.1 2D Shaded Contours and Vector Slices - Slice Files 

4.1.1 Axis aligned slices 

Slice files contain results recorded within a rectangular array of grid points at each recorded time step. 

Continuously shaded contours are drawn for simulation quantities such as temperature, gas velocity and 

heat release rate. Figure 4.1 shows several snapshots of a vertical animated slice where the slice is colored 

according to gas temperature. Slice files have file names with extension .sf and are displayed by selecting 

the desired entry from the Load/Unload menu. 

To specify in FDS a vertical slice 1.5 m from the y = 0 boundary colored by temperature, use the line: 

&SLCF PBY=1.5 QUANTITY='TEMPERATURE' / 

A more complete list of output quantities may be found in Ref. [4]. 

Vector slices Animated vectors are displayed using data contained in two or more slice files. The direction 

and length of the vectors are determined from the U, V and/or W velocity slice files. The vector colors are 

determined from the file (such as temperature) selected from the Load/Unload menu. The length of the 

vectors can be adjusted by pressing the ‘a’ key. For cases with a fine grid, the number of vectors may be 

overwhelming. Vectors may be skipped by pressing the ‘s’ key. Figure 4.2 shows a sequence of vector 

slices corresponding to the shaded temperature contours found in Fig. 4.1. 

To generate the extra velocity files needed to view vector animations, add VECTOR=.TRUE. to the 

above &SLCF line to obtain: 

&SLCF PBY=1.50,QUANTITY='TEMPERATURE',VECTOR=.TRUE. / 

Data coloring Smokeview uses a 1D texture map for coloring data occurring in slice, boundary and Plot3D 

files. This is illustrated in Fig. 4.3. The colors are now crisper and sharper, more accurately representing the 

underlying data. This is most noticeable when selecting the colorbar with the mouse. As before this causes 

a portion of the colorbar to turn black and the corresponding region in the scene to also turn black. Now 

the black color is accurate to the pixel so this feature could be used to highlight regions of interest. The 

improved accuracy is a result of the way color interpolations are performed. Colors are interpolated within 

19
 
5.0 s 10.0 s 

30.0 s 60.0 s 

Figure 4.1: Slice file snapshots of shaded temperature contours at various times in a simulation. These 

contours were generated by adding “&SLCF PBY=1.5, QUANTITY=’TEMPERATURE’ /” to the FDS 

input file. 

20
 
5.0 s 10.0 s 

30.0 s 60.0 s 

Figure 4.2: Vector slice file snapshots of shaded vector plots. These vector plots were generated by using 

“&SLCF PBY=1.5,QUANTITY=’TEMPERATURE’,VECTOR=.TRUE. /”. 

21
 
the colorbar using a 1D texture map. Color interpolations with the former method occurred within the color 

cube. 

Note, due to the way that transparent objects are drawn (from back to front), 3D Smoke/Fire and transparent slices may not display properly when shown at the same time. 

4.1.2 3D slices 

The user may visualize a 3D region of data using slice files. To specify a cube of data from 1.0 to 2.0 in 

each of the X, Y and Z directions in FDS , use the line: 

&SLCF XB=1.0,2.0,1.0,2.0,1.0,2.0 QUANTITY='TEMPERATURE' / 

A slice from the resulting slice file may be moved from one plane to the next just as with Plot3D files 

(using left/right, up/down cursor keys or page up/page down keys). 3D slices may also be oriented arbitrarily 

(not aligned with a coordinate axis) as illustrated in Fig. 4.5. 

A slice may also be oriented in an arbitrary direction. double clicking within the scene. While holding 

down the mouse after double clicking, move the mouse from side to side or up and down to rotate the general 

slice. Double clicking and moving the mouse vertically while holding down the ALT key causes the center 

of rotation for the general slice to move up and down. Double clicking and moving the mouse horizontally 

and vertically while holding down the SHIFT key causes the center of rotation for the general slice to move 

along the X and Y axis respectively. 

General slices may also be oriented using the General slice motion region of the Motion/View/Render 

dialog box as illustrated in Fig. 4.4. 

4.1.3 Fractional effective dose (FED) slices 

The fractional effective dose (FED), developed by Purser [23], is an estimate of human incapacitation due to 

a limited set of combustion gases. FED index data is computed by Smokeview using CO, CO2 and O2 gas 

concentration data computed by FDS. This data is made available to Smokeview in the form of slice files. 

Smokeview computes FED data using 

FEDtot = FEDCO ×HVCO2 +FEDO2 (4.1) 

where FEDtot is the total FED, FEDCO is the FED due to CO, HVCO2 is a hyper-ventilating factor applied to 

CO and FEDO2 is the FED due to CO2. The species data slices used to compute an FED slice needs to be 

specified at the same location. In the following, an FED slice would be computed at y = 1.6. 

&SLCF PBY=1.6,QUANTITY='VOLUME FRACTION' SPEC_ID='CARBON DIOXIDE' / 

&SLCF PBY=1.6,QUANTITY='VOLUME FRACTION' SPEC_ID='CARBON MONOXIDE' / 

&SLCF PBY=1.6,QUANTITY='VOLUME FRACTION' SPEC_ID='OXYGEN' / 

FED computations are stored by Smokeview in slice files for subsequent use. Since this computation is 

performed in Smokeview using data only found in the slices files, time step intervals should be chosen to 

ensure accuracy. Figure 4.6 illustrates an FED slice file. 

22
 
colors interpolated using a 3D color cube colors interpolated using a 1D texture color bar 

Figure 4.3: Slice file snapshots illustrating old and new method for coloring data. 

23
 
Figure 4.4: Motion/View/Render dialog box - Control the location and orientation of a general 3D slice 

within a 3D slice file. 

4.2 2D Shaded Contours on Solid Surfaces - Boundary Files 

Boundary files contain simulation data recorded at blockage or wall surfaces. Continuously shaded contours 

are drawn for quantities such as wall surface temperature, radiative flux, etc. Figure 4.7 shows several snapshots of a boundary file animation where the surfaces are colored according to their temperature. Boundary 

files have file names with extension .bf and are displayed by selecting the desired entry from the Load/Unload menu. Figure 4.8 shows the same snapshots as in Fig. 4.7 except that data below 200 ◦C is chopped. 

A boundary file containing wall temperature data may be generated by using: 

&BNDF 'WALL_TEMPERATURE' / 

Loading a boundary file is a memory intensive operation. The entire boundary file is read in to determine 

the minimum and maximum data values. These bounds are then used to convert four byte floats to one byte 

color indices. To drastically reduce the memory requirements, simply specify the minimum and maximum 

data bounds using the Set Bounds dialog box. This should be done before loading the boundary file data. 

When this is done, memory for the boundary file data is allocated for only one time step rather than for all 

time steps. 

24
 
Figure 4.5: Slices from a 3D temperature slice file at 60 s displayed using four orientations. 

3D slices may be re-oriented by double clicking and dragging the mouse or by changing settings 

in the Motion/View/Render dialog box. These slice contours were generated by adding “&SLCF 

XB=0.0,6.4,0.0,8.0,0.0,4.8, QUANTITY=’TEMPERATURE’ /” to the FDS input file. 

25
 
5.0 s 10.0 s
 

30.0 s 60.0 s
 

Figure 4.6: FED slices. These contours were generated using CO, CO2 and O2 data slices.
 

26
 
5.0 s 10.0 s 

30.0 s 60.0 s 

Figure 4.7: Boundary file snapshots of shaded wall temperatures (cell averaged data). These snapshots were 

generated by using “&BNDF QUANTITY=’WALL_TEMPERATURE’/”. 

27
 
5.0 s 10.0 s 

30.0 s 60.0 s 

Figure 4.8: Boundary file snapshots of truncated shaded wall temperatures (cell averaged data). Data 

values are truncated or chopped below 200 ◦C. These snapshots were generated by using “&BNDF 

QUANTITY=’WALL_TEMPERATURE’/”. 

28
 
5.0 s 10.0 s 

30.0 s 60.0 s 

Figure 4.9: Boundary file snapshots of shaded wall temperatures (cell centered data) These snapshots were 

generated by using “&BNDF QUANTITY=’WALL_TEMPERATURE’ CELL_CENTERED=.TRUE. /”. 

29
 
5.0 s 10.0 s
 

30.0 s 60.0 s 

Figure 4.10: 

Isosurface file snapshots of temperature levels. The orange surface is drawn where the air/smoke temperature 

is 30 ◦C and the white surface is drawn where the air/smoke temperature is 100 ◦C. These snapshots were 

generated by adding “&ISOF QUANTITY=’TEMPERATURE’,VALUE(1)=30.0,VALUE(2)=100.0 

/” to the FDS input file. 

30
 
4.3 3D Contours - Isosurface Files 

The surface where a quantity such as temperature attains a given value is called an isosurface. An isosurface 

is also called a level surface or 3D contour. Isosurface files contain data specifying isosurface locations for 

a given quantity at one or more levels. These surfaces are represented as triangles. Isosurface files have file 

names with extension .iso and are displayed by selecting the desired entry from the Load/Unload menu. 

Isosurfaces are specified in the FDS input file with the &ISOF keyword. To specify isosurfaces for 

temperatures of 30◦C and 100◦C as illustrated in Fig. 4.10 add the line: 

&ISOF QUANTITY='TEMPERATURE', VALUE(1)=30.0, VALUE(2)=100.0 / 

to the FDS input file. A complete list of isosurface quantities may be found in Ref. [4] 

4.3.1 Isosurfaces from particle files 

The Smokezip -part2iso option may be used to generate isosurfaces from particle data. Isosurface locations 

indicate a boundary separating particle and no-particle regions, i.e., wherever particle density is 0.5 particles 

per grid cell. Isosurface coloring is determined using averaged particle data. Representing particle data with 

an isosurface is useful when particles are used to model objects such as trees especially when the objects are 

viewed up close. See Chapter 16.1 for more details on generating isosurface files from particle files. Figure 

4.11 shows a snapshot of a fire plume generated using particles and the command 

Smokezip -part2iso plumeiso 

The plume is visualized using both particles and an isosurface generated from these same particles. 

4.3.2 Isosurfaces from fractional effective dose data (generated by Smokeview) 

As with 2D slices, Smokeview computes the fractional effective dose (FED) for isosurfaces if 3D slices for 

CO2, CO and O2 are specified in the FDS input file. 3D slices are required to compute isosurfaces. Again, 

these slices need to be specified at the same location as in 

&SLCF XB=0.0,1.6,0.0,1.6,0.0,3.2,QUANTITY='VOLUME FRACTION' SPEC_ID='CARBON DIOXIDE' / 

&SLCF XB=0.0,1.6,0.0,1.6,0.0,3.2,QUANTITY='VOLUME FRACTION' SPEC_ID='CARBON MONOXIDE' 

/ 

&SLCF XB=0.0,1.6,0.0,1.6,0.0,3.2,QUANTITY='VOLUME FRACTION' SPEC_ID='OXYGEN' / 

Figure 4.12 illustrates an FED isosurfaces where the three levels are at 0.3 (blue), 1.0 (yellow) and 3.0 (red). 

4.4 Device data - .csv files 

Spreadsheet data, generated by either FDS or CFAST or imported from some other source, may be visualized 

by Smokeview. Version 6 of both FDS and CFAST both generate spreadsheet files using the same file format 

given by 

unit1,unit2, ..., unitN 

label1,label2, ..., labelN 

data11,data12, ..., data1N 

data21,data22, ..., data2N 

31
 
particles at 10.0 s particle isosurface at 10.0 s
 

particles at 30.0 s particle isosurface at 30.0 s 

Figure 4.11: Fire plume visualized using particles and isosurfaces generated from particles. 

32
 
5.0 s 10.0 s
 

30.0 s 60.0 s 

Figure 4.12: FED isosurfaces. These level surfaces were generated using CO, CO2 and O2 3D data slices. 

The blue, yellow and red surfaces represent where the fed values are 0.3, 1.0 and 3.0 respectively. 

33
 
Figure 4.13: Devices dialog box. This dialog box allows the user to display data values stored in FDS 

spreadsheet files. 

....
 

datam1,datam2, ..., dataMN
 

where the unit and label entries are character strings and the data entries are floating point numbers. 

FDS uses spreadsheet files to store device and heat release data. CFAST uses spreadsheet files to store 

the results of the simulation (room pressures, layer heights, layer temperatures, etc.). To view spreadsheet 

data generated by FDS, open the Devices/Objects dialog box illustrated in Fig. 4.13 and select the Show 

values checkbox. If U, V and/or W velocity data is contained in the spreadsheet file then velocity vectors 

may also be displayed. 

4.5 Static Data - Plot3D Files 

Data stored in Plot3D files use a format developed by NASA [24] and are used by many CFD programs for 

representing simulation results. Plot3D files store five data values at each grid cell. FDS uses Plot3D files 

to store temperature, three components of velocity (U, V, W) and heat release rate. Other quantities may be 

stored if desired. 

An FDS simulation will automatically create Plot3D files at several specified times throughout the simulation. Plot3D data is visualized in three ways: as 2D contours, vector plots and isosurfaces. Figure 4.14a 

shows an example of a 2D Plot3D contour. Vector plots may be viewed if one or more of the U,V and W 

velocity components are stored in the Plot3D file. The vector length and direction show the direction and 

relative speed of the fluid flow. The vector colors show a scalar fluid quantity such as temperature. Figure 

4.14b shows vectors. The vector lengths may be adjusted by depressing the “a” key. Figure 4.15 gives an 

example of isosurfaces. Plot3D data are stored in files with extension .q . 

34
 
a) shaded 2D temperature contour plots in a b) shaded temperature vector plot in a ververtical plane through the fire tical plane through the fire. The “a” key 

may be depressed to alter the vector sizes. 

The “s” key may be depressed to alter the 

number of vectors displayed. 

Figure 4.14: Plot3D contour and vector plot examples. 

a) temperature isosurface at 350 ◦C b) temperature isosurface at 530 ◦C 

Figure 4.15: Plot3D isocontour example.
 

35
 
36
 
Chapter 5 

Visualizing Zone Fire Data 

Smokeview may be used to visualize data simulated by a zone fire model. The zone fire model, CFAST [7], 

creates data files containing geometric information such as room dimensions and orientation, vent locations, 

etc. It also outputs modeling quantities such as pressure, layer interface heights, and lower and upper 

layer temperatures. Smokeview visualizes the geometric layout of the scenario. It also visualizes the layer 

interface heights, upper layer temperature and vent flow. Vent flow is computed internally in Smokeview 

using the same equations and data as used by CFAST. For a given room, pressures , Pi, are computed at a 

number of elevations, hi using 

Pi = Pf −ρLgmin(hi, yL)−ρU gmax(hi −yL,0) (5.1) 

where Pf is the pressure at the floor (relative to ambient), ρL and ρU are the lower and upper layer densities 

computed from layer temperatures using the ideal gas law and g is the acceleration of gravity. When densities 

 h vary continuously with height, this becomes Pi = Pf − 0 ρ(z)gdz. A pressure difference profile is then 

determined using pressures computed on both sides of the given vent. 

In the visualization, colors represent the gas temperature of the vent flow. The colors change because the 

flow may come from either the lower (cooler) or upper (hotter) layer. The length and direction of the colored 

vent flow region represents a vent flow speed and direction. Plumes are represented as inverted cones with 

heights calculated in Smokeview using the same correlation as CFAST and heat release rate data computed 

by CFAST. A Smokeview view of the one room sample case that comes with the CFAST installation is 

illustrated in Figs. 5.1 and 5.2. 

37
 
100.0 s 200.0 s
 

300.0 s 400.0 s
 

Figure 5.1: CFAST 6.0 test showing upper/lower layer temperatures and vent flow visualized using color.
 

38
 
100.0 s 200.0 s
 

300.0 s 400.0 s 

Figure 5.2: CFAST 6.0 test showing upper/lower layer temperatures and vent flow. Layers are visualized 

realistically and vent flow is visualized using color. 

39
 
40
 
Part II
 

Controlling and Customizing Smokeview
 

41
 

Chapter 6 

Setting Options 

6.1 Setting Data Bounds 

Normally, Smokeview determines data bounds automatically when it loads data. Sometimes, however, it is 

desirable to override Smokeview’s choice. This allows for consistent color shading when displaying several 

data files simultaneously. 

The File/Bounds... dialog box is opened from the Dialogs menu. Each file type in Fig. 6.1 (slice, 

particle, Plot3D, etc.) has a set of radio buttons for selecting the variable type that data bounds are to be 

applied to. These variable types are determined from the files generated by FDS and are automatically 

recorded in the .smv file. The data bounds are set in a pair of edit boxes. Radio buttons adjacent to the edit 

boxes determine what type of bounds should be applied. The Update and Reload buttons are pressed 

to make the new bounds take effect. 

The Plot3D and Slice File portions of the File/Bounds dialog box have additional controls used 

to chop or hide data. The settings used in Fig. 6.2 were used to generate the ceiling jet visualized in Fig. 6.3. 

Data values less than 140 ◦C are chopped or not drawn in the figure. 

Slice file data may be time averaged or smoothed over a user selectable time interval. This option is also 

implemented from the Slice File section of the File/Bounds dialog box (see Fig. 6.2. 

The Boundary File portion of the File/Bounds dialog box has an Ignition checkbox which allows one to 

visualize when and where the blockage temperature exceeds its ignition temperature. 

The bounds dialog for Plot3D display allows one to select between three different types of contour plots: 

shaded, stepped and line contours. 

6.2 3D Smoke Options 

Figures 6.4 and 6.5 show slice and volume rendered controls for overriding Smokeview’s choice for several 

of the 3D smoke parameters. The user may specify the color of the fire and the gray level of the smoke. 

A gray level of n where n ranges from 0 to 7 results in a color of (2n ,2n ,2n) where the three components 

represent red, green and blue contributions. The hrrpuv cutoff input refers to the heat release rate required 

at a node before Smokeview will color the node as fire rather than smoke. The 50% flame depth allows 

one to specify the transparency or optical thickness of the fire (for visualization purposes only). A small 

value results in opaquely drawn fire while a large value results in a transparently drawn fire. The Absorption 

43
 
Figure 6.1: File/Bounds dialog box showing Plot3D file options. Select a variable and bound type, then
 

enter a lower and/or upper bound. Data may be excluded from the plot by selecting a Truncate data bound.
 

Select the type of contour plot to be displayed. Press Reload... or Update for the new bounds to take effect.
 

44
 
Figure 6.2: File/Bounds dialog box showing slice and boundary file options. Select a variable and a bound 

type checkbox/radio button, then enter a lower and/or upper bound. In the slice portion, data may be excluded from the plot by selecting a Truncate bound. In the boundary portion, ignited materials may be 

highlighted if a wall temperature boundary file has been saved. Press Reload... or Update for the new 

bounds to take effect. 

45
 
5.0 s 10.0 s 

30.0 s 60.0 s 

Figure 6.3: Ceiling jet visualization created by chopping data below 140 ◦C using the Bounds dialog box as 

illustrated in Fig. 6.2. 

46
 
Figure 6.4: Dialog box for setting slice rendered 3D smoke options.
 

47
 
Figure 6.5: Dialog box for setting volume rendered 3D smoke options.
 

48
 
Parameter setting refers to how the smoke slices are drawn. The adjust off-center setting causes Smokeview 

to account for non-axis aligned paths. The adjust off-center + zero at boundary accounts for off center path 

lengths and zeros smoke density at boundaries in order to remove graphical artifacts. 

6.3 Plot3D Viewing Options 

Plot3D files are more complicated to visualize than time dependent files such as particle, slice or boundary 

files. For example, only the transparency and color characteristics of a time file may be changed. With 

Plot3D files however, many attributes may be changed. One may view 2D contours along the X, Y and/or 

Z axis of up to six1 different simulated quantities, view flow vectors and iso or 3D contours. Plot3D file 

visualization is initiated by selecting the desired entry from the Load/Unload Plot3D sub-menu and as 

with time files one may change color and transparency characteristics. 

6.3.1 2D contours 

Smokeview displays a 2D contour slice midway along the Y axis by default when a Plot3D file is first loaded, 

To step the contour slice up by one grid cell along the Y axis, depress the space bar. Similarly to step the 

contour slice down by one grid cell along the Y axis, depress the “-” key. To view a contour along either the 

X or Z axis, depress the x or z keys respectively. Depressing the x, y or z keys while the contour is visible 

will cause it to be hidden. The Plot3D variable viewed may be changed by either depressing the “p” key or 

by selecting the Solution Variable sub-menu of the Show/Hide menu. 

6.3.2 Iso-Contours 

Iso-contours also called 3D contours or level surfaces may be viewed by depressing the “i key or by selecting the Plot3D>3D Contours sub-menu of the Show/Hide menu. 

6.3.3 Flow vectors 

If at least one velocity component is present in the Plot3D file then the “v” key may be depressed in order to 

view flow vectors. The length and direction of the vector indicates the flow direction and speed. The vector 

color indicates the value of the currently displayed quantity. A small dot is drawn at the end of the line to 

indicate flow direction. The vector lengths as drawn may be changed by depressing the “a” key. Vector 

plots may be very dense when the grid is finely meshed. The “s” key may be depressed in order to skip 

vectors. For example, all vectors are displayed by default. If the “s” is depressed then every other vector is 

skipped. 

6.4 Display Options 

6.4.1 General 

The Display dialog box, illustrated in Fig. 6.6, allows one to set various options to control the display or 

look of the Smokeview scene. It may be invoked by selecting the Dialogs>Display menu item. This dialog 

box also allows one to show or hide loaded data files. 

1 The FDS software stores temperature, three components of velocity (denoted u, v and w) and heat release per unit volume. If 

at least one velocity component is stored in a Plot3D file, then Smokeview adds speed to the Plot3D variable list. 

49
 
Figure 6.6: Dialog Box for setting miscellaneous Smokeview scene properties.
 

Figure 6.7: Dialog box for setting selecting colormaps. The colormap may then be shaded continuously, 

stepped or as a series of lines. The colormap may also be converted to shaded of gray. Colors for extreme 

data (data outside of specified bounds) may be specified. 

50
 
Figure 6.8: Stereo pair view of a townhouse kitchen fire. To aid in viewing the stereo effect, place a finger 

in front of each image. Relax your eyes allowing your two fingers and stereo pair images to merge into one. 

The Display dialog box, illustrated in Fig. 6.6, allows one to set various options to control the display or 

look of the Smokeview scene. It may be invoked by selecting the Dialogs>Display menu item. This dialog 

box also allows one to show or hide loaded data files. 

6.4.2 Stereo 

Smokeview implements several methods for displaying scenes in stereo or 3D. Each method separates the 

Smokeview scene in some way and sends a left version to your left eye and a right version to your right eye. 

Each method then creates two versions of the scene, one version for each eye. 

The first method, denoted sequential stereo, works by displaying images for the left and right eye alternately in time. Shuttered glasses synchronized with the monitor are used to ensure that only the left eye sees 

the left image and only the right eye sees the right image. A monitor displaying this type of stereo should 

have a refresh rate of at least 120 frames per second (60 frames per second for each eye) otherwise flickering is noticeable. Unfortunately, most of today’s LCD flat panel monitors typically do not have refresh rates 

faster than 60 to 80 frames per second. This method (for Smokeview) requires a video card that supports 

OpenGL QUAD buffering. This Smokeview stereo option may be enabled from the command line by using 

the -stereo option. 

The second method, denoted left/right stereo, displays the two images side by side. With practice, one 

can merge both images without requiring specialized glasses (though they are available if desired) especially 

if the images are small and not separated by a large angle. A trick for seeing the stereo effect is to place a 

finger from each hand in the center of each picture. Then relax your eyes while trying to merge your two 

fingers together. Figure 6.8 show an example of the left/right method for generating a stereo image. This 

method can generate full colored images and requires no equipment (for most people) to view but results in 

smaller images. 

The third method, uses color to separate left and right images. One method denoted red/blue stereo, 

displays red and blue versions of each image. Glasses with a red left lens and a blue right lens are required 

to view the image. As with the shuttered glasses for sequential stereo, the colored glasses separate the 

51
 
Figure 6.9: Red/blue stereo pair view of a townhouse kitchen fire. Red/blue glasses are required to see the 

3D stereo effect. 

images enabling each eye to see only one image. Red/blue colored glasses may be obtained inexpensively. 

They also may be made using red and blue cellophane or by coloring clear plastic with read and blue marking 

pens. Figure 6.9 uses the red/blue method for generating a stereo image. This method generates full size 

images, requires only inexpensive glasses to view but can only display monochrome images. The red/cyan 

method for displaying stereo images works similarly to the red/blue method. The main difference is that 

since cyan is the made up of green and blue (the opposite in some sense of red), the combination of red and 

cyan lenses allow all colors to pass to your eyes. 

Figures 6.10 uses the red/cyan method for generating a stereo image. As with red/blue, this method 

generates full size images. However, as stated earlier, this method allows Smokeview scenes to be displayed 

in full color. 

Figure 6.11 shows the dialog box used to configure the stereo option. If the -stereo command line option 

was used and the video card supports shuttered stereo display then the shuttered checkbox in the dialog box 

will be enabled. 

52
 
Figure 6.10: Red/cyan stereo pair view of a townhouse kitchen fire. Red/cyan glasses are required to see the 

3D stereo effect. 

Figure 6.11: Dialog box for activating the stereo view option.
 

53
 
Figure 6.12: Clipping dialog box. Minimum and maximum clip plane values for X, Y and Z planes are set 

using the clipping dialog box. One has the option when clipping of hiding the geometry and data or just the 

geometry. 

6.5 Clipping Scenes 

It is difficult to view the interior of a scene when modeling complicated geometries. To alleviate this problem, one may change the blockage view to outline with the Show/Hide>Blockages menu or one may clip 

the scene. Portions of the scene may be hidden or clipped by setting up to six clipping planes. The scene is 

then drawn on one side of a clipping plane but not the other. In general, a clipping plane may have any orientation. Smokeview defines six clipping planes, two clipping planes for each of the three coordinate axes. 

The two x axis clipping planes clip regions with x coordinates smaller than ‘xmin’ (in FDS coordinates) and 

larger than ‘xmax’ . Clipping planes for the y and z axis behave similarly. Clipping plane values are specified 

using the Clipping dialog box which is opened by selecting the Dialogs>Clip Geometry menu item. Figure 

6.12 shows this dialog box with the ymax plane active. Figure 6.13 shows three versions of a scene. Figure 

6.13a is drawn with no clipping. Figure 6.13b is drawn clipping just the geometry (blockages). Figure 6.13c 

is drawn clipping both the geometry and the data. 

The clipping dialog box also allows one to hide blockages. Blockages for any given mesh may be hidden 

by selecting the appropriate checkbox in the Hide blockages rollout panel. 

54
 
a) no clipping
 

b) clip blockages
 

b) clip blockages and data
 

Figure 6.13: Three views of a scene. The first view is drawn without clipping, the second view shows the
 

scene clipping only the geometry (blockages), the third view shows the scene clipping both the geometry
 

and the data. 55 
56
 
Chapter 7 

Creating Custom Objects 

Smokeview visualizes FDS devices such as heat and smoke detectors using instructions found in a file 

named objects.svo. Smokeview also uses these instructions to represent people (avatars) in FDS-EVAC 

simulations and to represent trees and shrubs in FDS WUI simulations. The Smokeview implementation of 

FDS devices is referred to as objects in this chapter. 

The instruction file is located in the Smokeview installation directory1 . The instructions correspond 

to OpenGL library calls, the same type of calls Smokeview uses to visualize FDS cases. Smokeview then 

acts as an interpreter executing OpenGL commands as specified in the object definition file. Efficiency is 

attained by compiling these instructions into display lists, terminology for an OpenGL construct for storing 

and efficiently drawing collections of OpenGL commands. New objects may be designed and drawn without 

requiring modifications to Smokeview and more importantly may be created by someone other than the 

Smokeview developer. 

An object’s appearance may be fixed or it may be altered based upon data specified in an FDS input 

file. The sensor object is drawn as a small green sphere with a fixed diameter. Its appearance is the same 

regardless of how an FDS input file is set up. The appearance of the tsphere object (t for texture) depends 

on data specified in the FDS input file. One may specify the diameter of the sphere and an image to cover it 

with ( the image is known as a texture map). 

As with preference or .ini files, Smokeview looks for object definition files in three locations: in a file 

named objects.svo located in the Smokeview installation directory, in a file named objects.svo located in the casename directory and in a file named casename.svo also located in the casename directory 

where casename is the name of the case being visualized. 

This chapter describes how to create new objects. Though all of the examples are given for drawing 

FDS devices, the intent of this procedure is to be more general allowing Smokeview to draw other types of 

objects such as people walking. 

7.1 Object File Format 

The first statement in an object definition is the keyword OBJECTDEF (or AVATARDEF when defining a 

person). The next statement is the name or label for the object. Following this are the instructions used for 

creating the object. Each instruction consist of zero or more data values followed by a command. Comments 

may be placed anywhere in the object definition file by adding text after a double slash ‘//‘. 

Data from FDS may be optionally passed to the object definition by placing a series of labels, written 

as :var1 ... :varn, at the beginning of the definition. These data values may then be accessed later 

1The current objects.svo file containing documentation and a listing of object definitions is listed in Appendix D.6 

57
 
in the definition using $var1 ... $varn respectively. The data placed in :vari labels is specified in 

the FDS input file using the SMOKEVIEW_PARAMETERS keyword on the &PROP input line. 

There are two types of instructions for drawing basic geometric objects. Instructions for drawing objects 

such as cubes, disks, spheres etc. and instructions for manipulating these objects through transformations 

such as scaling, rotation and translation. Collectively these instructions specify the type, location and orientation of objects used to represent objects. The important feature of this process is that new objects may be 

designed and drawn without the need to modify Smokeview. 

Some examples of argument/instruction pairs are d drawsphere for drawing a sphere of diameter 

d or x y z translate for translating an object by (x,y,z). The symbols d, x, y and z are specified 

in the object file using a numerical constant such as 1.23 or using a reference such as $var to data located 

elsewhere. 

Transformation commands are cumulative, each command builds on the effects of the previous one. The 

commands push and pop isolate these effects by saving and restoring the geometric state. 

The format for an object definition file is given in more detail in Fig. 7.1. Each object definition 

consists of one or more frames. A frame is used to represent various states of the object. Objects such as 

thermocouples which do not activate use just one frame. Other objects such as sprinklers or smoke detectors 

which do activate use two frames, the first for normal conditions and the second for when the object has 

activated. 

Figure 7.2 illustrates a simple example of an object definition used to draw a sensor along with the 

corresponding Smokeview view. The definition uses just one frame. A sphere is drawn with color yellow 

and diameter 0.038 m. Push and pop commands are not necessary because there is only one object and no 

transformations are used. 

The example illustrated in Fig. 7.3 is more complicated. It shows a definition of a heat detector along 

with a corresponding Smokeview view. The definition uses two frames. The first frame represents the 

heat detector’s inactive state, the second frame represents the active state (commands after the NEWFRAME 

keyword). This definition uses disks, a truncated cone and spheres. The scale and translate commands are 

used to draw these objects at the proper size. The translate command then positions them properly. Two 

frames are defined for both the inactive and active (after the heat detector has activated.) states. 

Figure 7.4 shows an example of a definition used to draw a scaled sphere using scalings obtained from 

an FDS input file along with the corresponding Smokeview view. This definition is set up so that if the label 

value ’D’ has a value greater than 0.0 then a sphere is drawn with diameter D otherwise an ellipsoid is drawn 

with dimensions ’DX’, ’DY’ and ’DZ’. This definition uses just one frame. The scaled sphere/ellipsoid is 

drawn using data specified on the SMOKEVIEW_PARAMETERS keyword in the FDS input file. 

Figure 7.5 gives Smokeview views for several objects defined in the objects.svo file. A more 

complete list is found in the FDS User’s Guide [4]. 

7.2 Elementary Geometric Objects 

The objects described in this section are the building blocks used to construct more complex objects. Each 

command used to draw an elementary geometric object consists of one or more arguments followed by the 

command, for example, the command sequence 0.3 drawsphere draws a sphere with diameter 0.3 (all 

units as with FDS are in meters). 

58
 
// ************ object file format ******************** 

// 1. comments and blank lines may be placed anywhere 

// 2. any line not beginning with "//" is part of the definition. 

// 3. the first non-comment line after OBJECTDEF is the object name 

// 4. an object definition may contain, labels, numerical constants 

// (a number), string constants (enclosed in " ") and/or 

// commands (beginning with a-z) 

// 5. a label begins with ':' as in :dx 

// 6. the label :dx may be accessed afterward using $dx 

// 7. An object may contain multiple frames or states. A new frame within 

// an object is defined using NEWFRAME 

// OBJECTDEF // OBJECTDEF begins the object definition 

// object_name // name or label for object 

// :var1 ... :varn // a series of labels may be specified for use by 

// // the object definition. Data is copied to these 

// // label locations using the SMOKEVIEW_PARAMETERS 

// // &PROP keyword or from a particle file. The data 

// // in :varn may be referenced elsewhere in the 

// // definition using $varn 

// // A series of argument/command pairs are specified on one or 

// // more lines. 

// arg1 ... argn command1 arg1 ... argn command2 ... 

// // An argument may be a numerical constant (e.g., 2.37), a string 

// // (e.g., "SKYBLUE"), a label (e.g., :var1), or a reference to a 

// // label located elsewhere (e.g., $var1) 

// NEWFRAME // beginning of next frame 

// more argument/command pairs for the next object frame 

// .... 

Figure 7.1: Object file format.
 

59
 
OBJECTDEF 

sensor 

1.0 1.0 0.0 setcolor 

0.038 drawsphere 

Figure 7.2: Instructions for drawing a sensor along with the corresponding Smokeview view.
 

drawarcdisk The command, a d h drawarcdisk, draws 

a portion of circular disk with angle a, diameter d and height h. 

The origin is located at the center of the disk’s base. 

60.0 0.25 0.50 drawarcdisk 

drawcircle The command, d drawcircle , draws a circle 

with diameter d. The origin is located at the center of the circle. 

drawcone The command, d h drawcone, draws a right circular cone 

where d is the diameter of the base and h is the height. The origin is located 

at the center of the cone’s base. 

0.50 0.30 drawcone 

drawcube The command, s drawcube, draws a cube where s is the length of 

the side. The origin is located at the center of the cube. An oblong box, a box with 

different length sides, may be drawn by using scale along with drawcube. For 

example, 1.0 2.0 4.0 scale 1.0 drawcube creates a box with dimen0.25 drawcube sions 1 ×2 ×4. 

60
 
Heat detector Instructions
 

OBJECTDEF 

heat_detector // label, name of object 

// The heat detector has three parts 

// a disk, a truncated disk and a sphere. 

// The sphere changes color when activated. 

0.8 0.8 0.8 setcolor // set color to off white 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.02 translate 0.127 0.04 drawdisk pop 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.04 translate 0.06 0.08 0.02 drawtrunccone pop 

0.0 1.0 0.0 setcolor 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.03 translate 0.04 drawsphere pop 

// push and pop are not necessary in the last line 

// of a frame. Its a good idea though, to prevent 

// problems if parts are added later. 

NEWFRAME // beginning of activated definition 

0.8 0.8 0.8 setcolor 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.02 translate 0.127 0.04 drawdisk pop 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.04 translate 0.06 0.08 0.02 drawtrunccone pop 

1.0 0.0 0.0 setcolor 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.03 translate 0.04 drawsphere pop 

inactive active 

Figure 7.3: Instructions for drawing an inactive and active heat detector along with the corresponding 

Smokeview view. 

61
 
OBJECTDEF // object for a general ball 

ball 

:R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :DX :DY :DZ :D=-.1 

$D 0.0 :DGT0 GT 

$R $G $B setrgb 

$DGT0 IF 

$D drawsphere 

ELSE 

$DX $DY $DZ scalexyz 1.0 drawsphere 

ENDIF 

NO_OP 

FDS input lines to create ball 

The data labels (:R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :DX :DY :DZ :D=-.1) in the object file 

correspond to the SMOKEVIEW_PARAMETERS inputs in the FDS input file 

though the order may be different. 

&PROP ID='ball' SMOKEVIEW_PARAMETERS(1:5)='R=0','G=0','B=255', 

'DX=0.25','DY=.5','DZ='1.0' SMOKEVIEW_ID='ball' / 

&DEVC XYZ=0.5,0.8,2.5, QUANTITY='TEMPERATURE' PROP_ID='ball' / 

Figure 7.4: Instructions for drawing the dynamic object, ball, along with the corresponding FDS input lines 

and the Smokeview view. 

62 
inactive up-right sprinkler active up-right sprinkler
 

inactive smoke detector active smoke detector
 

sensor target
 

Figure 7.5: Smokeview view of several objects defined in the objects.svo file.
 

63
 
0.25 drawcubec 

drawcubec The command, s drawcubec, is the same as s drawcube except that the origin is located at the front, left, bottom corner of the cube rather 

than at the cube center. An oblong box, a box with different length sides, may be 

drawn by using scale along with drawcubec. For example, 1.0 2.0 4.0 

scale 1.0 drawcube creates a box with dimensions 1 ×2 ×4. 

drawdisk The command, d h drawdisk, draws a circular disk with diameter d and height h. The origin is located at the center of the disk’s base.
 

0.25 0.50 drawdisk 

drawcdisk The command, d h drawcdisk, draws a circular disk with 

diameter d and height h. The origin is located at the center of the disk. This 

command is a shortcut for h 2.0 :hd2 div $hd2 offsetz d h 

drawdisk. 0.25 0.50 drawcdisk 

drawhexdisk The command, d h drawhexdisk, draws a hexagonal disk with diameter d and height h. The origin is located at the center 

of the hexagon’s base. 

0.5 0.25 drawhexdisk 

drawline The command, x1 y1 z1 x2 y2 z2 drawline, draws 

a line between the points (x1, y1,z1) and (x2, y2,z2). 

drawnotchplate The command, 

d h nh dir drawnotchplate, draws a notched 

plate. This object is used to represent a portion of a 

sprinkler where d is the plate diameter, h is the plate 0.5 0.1 0.2 1 drawnotchplate 0.5 0.1 0.2 -1 drawnotchplate height (not including notches), nh is the height of 

the notches and dir indicates the notch orientation 

(1 for vertical, -1 for horizontal). The origin is located at the center of the plate’s base. 

drawpoint The command, drawpoint, draws a point (small square). The command, s setpointsize 

may be used to change the size of the point. The default size is 1.0 . 

drawpolydisk The command, n d h drawpolydisk, draws 

an n-sided polygonal disk with diameter d and height h. The origin 

is located at the center of the polygonal disk’s base. The example to 

the left is a pentagonal disk. 5 0.35 0.15 drawpolydisk 

64
 
drawring The command, di do h drawring, draws a ring where 

di and do are the inner and outer ring diameters and h is the height of the 

ring. The origin is located at the center of the ring’s base. 

0.25 drawsphere 

0.3 0.5 0.1 drawring 

drawsphere The command, d drawsphere, draws a sphere with diameter 

d. The origin is located at the center of the sphere. As with an oblong box, an ellipsoid may be drawn by using scale along with drawsphere. For example, 

1.0 2.0 4.0 scale 1.0 drawsphere creates an ellipsoid with semimajor axes of length 1, 2 and 4. This is how the ball at the bottom of the heat 

detector in Fig. 7.3a is drawn. 

drawtrunccone The command, d1 d2 h drawtrunccone, 

draws a right circular truncated cone where d1 is the diameter of 

the base, d2 is the diameter of the truncated portion of the cone and 

h is the height or distance between the lower and upper portions 

0.5 0.2 0.4 drawtrunccone of the truncated cone. The origin is located at the center of the 

truncated cone’s base. 

7.3 Visual Transformations 

As with geometric commands, transformation commands consist of zero or more arguments followed by the 

command. Transformation commands are used to directly or indirectly change how drawn objects appear. 

Visual transformations make changes directly, changing the location and orientation of drawn objects, setting 

drawing attributes such as point size, line width or object color or saving and restoring the geometric state. 

Arithmetic transformations, described in the next section, make changes indirectly by operating on data 

which in turn is used as inputs to various drawing commands. 

Visual transformation commands map directly to counterparts in OpenGL. The rotate and translate 

commands change the origin (translate) or orientation of the x,y,z axes (rotate). The offsetx, offsety and 

offsetz commands translate objects along just one axis. The PUSH command is then used to save the origin 

or axis orientation while the POP command is used to restore the origin and axis orientation. 

gettextureindex The command 

"texture_file" :texture_index gettextureindex 

finds the index in an internal Smokeview table containing the entry texture_file (a file containing 

a texture map image). This index is used by other object drawing routines that support texture 

mapping (presently drawtsphere). 

gtranslate The command, x y z gtranslate, translates objects in a global reference frame, the 

same reference frame used to define FDS geometry. Objects drawn after the gtranslate command are moved by x, y and z along the x, y and z Cartesian axes respectively. Equivalently, 

one can think of think of x y z gtranslate as translating the origin by (-x,-y,-z). 

offsetx The command, x offsetx, translates objects drawn afterwards by x along the x axis. 

65
 
offsety The command, y offsety, translates objects drawn afterwards by y along the y axis. 

offsetz The command, z offsetz, translates objects drawn afterwards by z along the z axis. 

orienx, orieny, orienz The command, x y z orienx, rotates the scene so that the vector u = (1,0,0)

in the original scene maps to w = (x, y,z). The commands orieny and orienz are similar to 

orienx mapping (0,1,0) and (0,0,1) to (x, y,z) instead. 

pop The command, pop, restores the origin and axis orientation saved using a previous pop command. The total number of pop and push commands must be equal, otherwise a fatal error will 

occur. Smokeview detects this problem and draws a red sphere instead of the errantly defined 

object. 

push The command, push, saves the origin and axis orientation. (see above comment about number 

of push and pop commands). 

randxy, randxz, randyz The command flag randxy performs a random rotation about the z axis 

(in the xy plane) if flag is 1. If flag is anything else this command has no effect. The 

commands randxz and randyz are similar, rotating within the xz and yz planes instead of 

the xy plane. 

rotateaxis The command, angle x y z rotateaxis, rotates objects drawn afterwards by angle 

degrees about an axis defined by the vector (x, y,z). 

rotatexyz The command, x y z rotatexyz, rotates objects from the vector (0,0,1) to the vector (x,y,z) . The axis of rotation computed internally by Smokeview is (0,0,1) × (x, y,z) =

(−y, x,0) (a vector perpendicular to 

o

the plane formed by vectors (0,0,1) and (x, y,z)) . The

cosine of the angle of rotation is z/ x2 +y2 +z2 

rotatex	 The command, r rotatex, rotates objects drawn afterwards r degrees about the x axis. 

rotatey	 The command, r rotatey, rotates objects drawn afterwards r degrees about the y axis. 

rotatez	 The command, r rotatez, rotates objects drawn afterwards r degrees about the z axis. A 

cone or any object for that matter may be drawn upside down by adding a rotatez command 

as in 180 rotatez 1.0 0.5 drawcone. 

scalexyz The command, x y z scalexyz, stretches objects drawn afterwards by x, y and z respectively along the x, y and z axes. The scalexyz along with the drawsphere commands 

would be used to draw an ellipsoid by stretching a sphere along one of the axes. 

scale	 The command, xyz scale, stretches objects drawn afterwards xyz along each of the x, y and 

z axes (equivalent to xyz xyz xyz scalexyz ). 

setbw	 The command, gray setbw, sets the red, green and blue components of color to gray (equivalent to gray gray gray setcolor ). As with the setcolor command, setbw is only required 

when the gray level changes, not for each object drawn. 

setcolor The command, “color name” setcolor, obtains sets the color to the red, green and blue 

components of the FDS standard color color name. 

setlinewidth The command, w setlinewidth sets the width of lines drawn with the drawline 

and drawcircle commands. 

setpointsize The command, s setpointsize, sets the size of points drawn with the drawpoint 

command. 

setrgb	 The command, r g b setrgb, sets the red, green and blue components of the current color. 

Any objects drawn afterwards will be drawn with this color. This command is not required for 

each object part drawn. The color component values range from 0 to 255. 

66
 
translate The command, x y z translate, translates objects drawn afterwards by x, y and z along 

x, y and z axes respectively relative to the current (local) reference frame. 

7.4 Arithmetic Transformations 

Arithmetic transformation commands allow one to indirectly change how objects are drawn using information passed from FDS. This information is passed using the SMOKEVIEW_PARAMETERS keyword on 

the &PROP namelist statement. These commands transform data to change the inputs of subsequent object 

commands. 

add The command, 

a b :val add, 

clip 

is used to compute the value, val = a + b, where a and b are either numerical constants or 

references to previously defined data. The result, val is placed in the label :val accessible 

later in the definition file using $val. 

The command, 

val_in val_min val_max :val_clipped clip, 

is used to clip a value val_in between val_min and val_max using 

val_clipped = max(val_min,min(val_in,val_max)) (7.1) 

div 

The inputs, val_in, val_min and val_max are either numerical constants or references to 

previously defined data. The clipped result is placed in the label :val_clipped accessible 

later in the definition file using $val_clipped. 

The command, 

a b :val div, 

eq 

is used to compute the value, val = a/b, where a and b are either numerical constants or references to previously defined data. If the denominator, b, is zero then the result, val, returned is 

zero and is placed in the label :val accessible later in the definition file using $val. 

The command, 

a b eq, 

gett 

is used to copy data from the label b to a, ie performs the operation a=b. 

The command, 

:time gett, 

is used to obtain the current simulation time. The simulation time is placed in the label :time 

accessible later in the definition file using $time. 

67
 
mirrorclip The command, 

val_in val_min val_max :val_clipped mirrorclip, 

is used to clip a value val_in between val_min and val_max using 

val_1 = mod(val_in −val_min,2(val_max −val_min))

 

(7.2) 

val_clipped = val_min +val_1 

val_max −val_1 

val_1 ≤ val_max −val_min 

val_1 > val_max −val_min (7.3) 

mult The command, 

a b :val mult, 

is used to compute the value, val = ab, where a and b are either numerical constants or references to previously defined data. The result, val is placed in the label :val accessible later 

in the definition file using $val. 

The inputs, val_in, val_min and val_max are either numerical constants or references to 

previously defined data. The clipped result is placed in the label :val_clipped accessible 

later in the definition file using $val_clipped. 

multiaddt The command, 

a b :val multiaddt, 

is used to compute the value, val = at + b, where t is the simulation time and a and b are 

either numerical constants or references to previously defined data. The result, val is placed in 

the label :val accessible later in the definition file using $val. This allows one to change how 

an object appears as a function of time (changing its size, rotating it, changing its color, etc.). 

The command, a b :val multiaddt, is a shortcut for 

:time gett a $time :at mult $at b :val add 

periodicclip The command, 

val_in val_min val_max :val_clipped periodicclip, 

is used to clip a value val_in between val_minand val_max using 

val_clipped = val_min +mod(val_in −val_min,val_max −val_min) (7.4) 

(7.5) 

The inputs, val_in, val_min and val_max are either numerical constants or references to 

previously defined data. The clipped result is placed in the label :val_clipped accessible 

later in the definition file using $val_clipped. 

sub The command, 

a b :val sub, 

68
 
is used to compute the value, val = a − b, where a and b are either numerical constants or 

references to previously defined data. The result, val is placed in the label :val accessible 

later in the definition file using $val. 

7.5 Logical and Conditional Operators 

Logical and conditional operators are used in conjunction to test values and execute portion of an object 

definition depending on the results of the test. Logical operators return 1 if the test is true and 0 if the test is 

false. 

and The command 

a b :val AND 

returns 1 in :val if both a and b are true (any value other than 0), otherwise it returns 0. 

gt The command 

a b :val GT 

returns 1 in :val if a is greater than b, otherwise it returns 0. 

ge The command 

a b :val GE 

returns 1 in :val if a is greater than or equal to b, otherwise it returns 0. 

if,else,endif Consider the object command sequence 

$val IF
 

arg1 arg2 command1 arg1 arg2 command2 ....
 

ELSE
 

arg1 arg2 command3 arg1 arg2 command4 ....
 

ENDIF
 

The value $val is typically generated from a previous logical operation (ie with GE, LT, etc.). 

The commands between the IF and ELSE operators are executed if $val is not 0 otherwise 

the commands between ELSE and ENDIF are executed. The ELSE operator is optional. 

lt The command 

a b :val LT 

returns 1 in :val if a is less than b, otherwise it returns 0. 

le The command 

a b :val LE 

69
 
in :val if a is less than or equal to b, otherwise it returns 0. 

or The command 

a b :val OR 

returns 1 in :val if either a or b are true (any value other than 0), otherwise it returns 0. 

70
 
Chapter 8 

Manipulating the Scene Automatically - The 

Touring Option 

The touring option allows one to specify paths or tours through a Smokeview scene. One may then view 

a scene from the vantage point of an observer moving along one of these paths. Smokeview creates a tour 

surrounding the scene by default. An example for the townhouse case is illustrated in Fig. 8.1. The user 

may create a new tour (or modify an existing one) using the Tour dialog box illustrated in Fig. 8.2. The 

user creates a tour by defining two or more key frames each with an associated view direction. The default 

view direction is towards the direction of motion. View directions may be specified in terms of an azimuthal 

and elevation angle relative to the path direction (default 0.0 for both) or as an (x, y,z) position coordinate. 

Smokeview creates a smooth path through these points using cubic Hermite polynomials. 

8.1 Tour Settings 

A new tour is created by clicking the New Tour button in the Edit Tour dialog box. The newly created 

tour has two key frames. The tour goes through the middle of the Smokeview scene starting at the front left 

and finishing at the back right. A tour may be modified by selecting the Edit Tour checkbox. Tour characteristics such as key frame positions and view directions at those positions are saved in the configuration file, 

casename.ini. 

The View From Tour Path and View From Selected Keyframe checkboxes are used to control how one 

observes the scene using a Tour. If View From Tour Path is checked then one moves through the scene along 

the currently specified tour. If View From Selected Keyframe is checked then one sees the scene from the 

point of view of the currently selected key frame. This allows one to observe how the position and view 

direction settings will affect the view. Unchecking these options returns control of scene movement to the 

user allowing one to have a global view of the tour. 

The speed traversed along a tour is determined from the number of points along the path and by the 

by the time value assigned at each key frame. If the Constant Speed checkbox is checked then the time at 

each key frame is determined so that the number of path points along the tour occur at a constant rate. The 

key frame times are determined so that the points between any two key frames are proportional to the path 

distance between these two key frames. The start and stop times of the tour may also be specified using the 

start time and stop time entries in the dialog box. 

71
 
Figure 8.1: Overhead view of townhouse example showing the default Circle tour. The square dots indicate 

the key frame locations. Key frames may be edited using the Touring dialog box or by clicking and dragging 

with the mouse. 

Figure 8.2: The Touring dialog box may be used to select tours or keyframes, change the position or view 

direction at each key frame and change the tension of the tour path. 

72
 
8.2 Key frame Settings 

A tour is created from a series of key frames. One may specify the time, position and view direction at 

each key frame. Smokeview then obtains positions and view directions between key frames by interpolating 

using cubic Hermite cubic splines. A tour is created by pressing the Add Tour button. This tour has 

two key frames located at opposite ends of the Smokeview scene. Additional key frames may be created by 

selected the Add button. 

The position and viewpoint of a key frame may be adjusted. First it must be selected. A key frame may 

be selected by either clicking on it with the left mouse button or by moving through the key frames using 

the Next or Previous buttons. The active key frame as drawn within the Smokeview scene changes 

color from red to green. Key frame positions may then be modified by changing data in the t, X, Y or Z edit 

boxes. A different view direction may also be set. 

A key frame may also be moved with the mouse. Clicking on a key frame node then dragging the mouse 

left/right and up/down moves the key frame horizontally and vertically. Pressing the <CTRL> key while 

dragging the mouse restricts key frame movement to a horizontal direction (with respect to the mouse). 

Pressing the <ALT> key while dragging the mouse restricts key frame movement to a vertical direction 

(again with respect to the mouse). 

A new key frame is created by clicking the Add button. It is formed by averaging the positions and 

view directions of the current and next key frames. If the selected key frame is the last one in the tour then a 

new key frame is added beyond the last key frame. A key frame may also be created by pressing the ’a’ key. 

A key frame may be deleted by clicking the Delete 

Delete Tour 

button. The currently selected key frame may 

also be deleted by pressing the ’d’ key. There is no button. A tour may be deleted by 

either deleting all of its key frames or by deleting its entry in the casename.ini file. 

A view direction may be defined at each key frame by either setting direction angles relative to the path 

(an azimuthal and an elevation angle) or by setting a direction relative to the scene geometry (a Cartesian 

(X,Y,Z) view direction). 

Path relative view directions are enabled by default. To define a Cartesian view direction, select the 

X,Y,Z View checkbox and edit the X, Y and Z View edit boxes to change the view location. To define an path 

relative view direction, uncheck the X,Y,Z View checkbox and edit the Azimuth and Elevation edit boxes. 

Checking the View From Selected Keyframe checkbox in the Edit Tours dialog box allows one to see the 

effects of the view changes from the key frame being edited. To see the effect of a change in one of the 

key frame’s parameters, uncheck the View From Selected Keyframe checkbox and position the tour locator 

(vertical and horizontal red lines) near the key frame. The horizontal red line always points in the view 

direction. 

Using cartesian view directions result in better tours as the view directions are more stable than relative 

view directions as one moves along a tour. 

Spline tension settings may also be changed, though normally this is not necessary except when one 

wishes abrupt rather than smooth path changes. Kochanek-Bartels [22] splines (piecewise cubic Hermite 

polynomials) are used to represent the tour paths. 

Cubic Hermite polynomials are uniquely specified for each interval using function and derivative values 

at each endpoint of the interval (i.e., 4 data values). These derivatives are computed in terms of three 

parameters referred to as bias, continuity and tension. Each of these parameters range from -1 to 1 with 

a default value of 0. The tension value may be set for all key frames at once (by checking the Global 

checkbox) or for each key frame separately. The bias and continuity values are set to zero internally by 

Smokeview. A tension value may be specified in the Touring dialog box and is set to 0 is set by default. A 

value of 1 results in a linear spline. 

73
 
a) Initial tour b) First and last step set with 5 key frames
 

c) All key frame positions set (tension=0.0) d) Tension set to 0.75 

Figure 8.3: Tutorial examples for Tour option. 

8.3 Setting up a tour 

The following steps give a simple example of setting up a tour in the townhouse scenario. The tour will 

begin at the back of the house, go towards the front door and then end at the top of the stairs. These steps 

are illustrated in Fig. 8.3. 

1. Start by clicking the Dialog>Tours... menu item which opens up the Edit Tours dialog box. 

2. Click on the New Tour button in the Edit Tour dialog box. This creates a tour, illustrated in Fig. 

8.3a, starting at the front left of the scene and ending at the back right. This tour has two key frames. 

The elevation of each key frame is halfway between the bottom and top of the scene. 

3. Click on the Edit Tour Path checkbox. This activates buttons that allows the user to edit the properties 

of each individual key frame. Click on the square dot at the back of the townhouse. This is the first key 

frame. Change the “Z” value to 1.0. Click on the second dot and change its “Z” value to 1.0. 

74
 
4. Click on the Add button, found inside the Edit Keyframe’s Position panel, three times. This will add 

three more key frames to the tour which will be needed so that the path bends up the stairs. You should 

now have five key frames. 

5. Move the first key frame at the back of the townhouse near the double door by setting X, Y, Z positions to 

(3.8,-1.0,1.6). Move the last key frame to the top of the steps by setting X, Y, Z positions to (6.1,3.6,4.1). 

The path should now look like Figure 8.3b. 

6. Move the second, third and fourth key frames to positions (4.0,4.0,1.6), (4.4,6.8,1.6) and (5.9,6.1,2.0). 

The path should now look like Fig. 8.3c. 

7. Click on the Tension panel. Check the Global checkbox and set the All keyframes edit box 

to 0.5. This tightens up the spline curve reducing the dip near the stairs that occurs with the tension=0.0 

setting. The path should now look like Fig. 8.3d. 

8. Click on the Save Settings button to save the results of your editing changes. 

9. To see the results of the tour, click on the View From Tour Path checkbox. 

The point of view of the observer on this path is towards the direction of motion. Next the view direction 

will be changed to point to the side while the observer is on the first floor. 

1. Uncheck the View From Tour Path checkbox in the tour dialog box and make sure that the X,Y,Z View 

checkbox is unchecked. 

2. Click on the dot representing the first key frame. Then change Azimuth setting to 90 degrees. To see the 

results of the change, go back and check the View From Tour Path checkbox. 

3. Uncheck the View From Tour Path checkbox again. Now select the second and third key frames and 

change their azimuth settings to 90 degrees. 

With this second set of changes, the observer will look to the side as they pass through the kitchen and 

living room. The observer will look straight ahead as they go up the stairs. 

75
 
76
 
Chapter 9 

Running Smokeview Automatically - The 

Scripting Option 

9.1 Overview 

Smokeview may be run in an automatic or batch mode using instructions found in a text file. The intent 

of the scripting option is to allow one to reproducibly document a case. A script may be re-run resulting 

in newly generated images guaranteed to correspond properly with the previously generated ones whenever 

changes occur in the FDS input file or in the FDS or Smokeview applications. 

Script instructions direct Smokeview to perform actions such as loading data files, moving the scene to 

a specified view point, setting the time and rendering the scene. Smokeview settings such as font sizes, file 

bounds, label visibility, etc. are set by using the script command LOADINI to load a custom named .ini file. 

A simplified scripting language results by allowing most customizations to be performed through the use of 

.ini files. 

9.2 Creating a Script 

Scripts may be created by Smokeview using the script recorder feature or may be created by editing a text 

file using commands described in the glossary that follows. A script may be run using three methods. It 

may be run from within Smokeview using the Load/Unload>Script Option menu or from the Scripts panel 

of the File/Bounds dialog box illustrated in Fig. 9.1. It may also be run from a Windows command shell 

using the command 

smokeview -runscript casename 

where casename is the name specified by the CHID keyword defined in the FDS input data file. 

The recorder is turned on using the Load/Unload>Script Option menu and selecting Start Recording. 

After performing a sequence of steps, it is turned off and the script is saved. Typically steps involve loading 

data files, setting view points, setting times and rendering images. 

9.2.1 Example 1 

This example describes the steps used to create a simple script. This script will load a slice file and then 

display and render it at 10 s, 20 s, 30 s and 40 s. The script corresponding to the steps listed below is given 

77
 
Figure 9.1: Script dialog box. The Script dialog box allows one to setup and run Smokeview scripts. The 

Script dialog box is invoked by selecting the Dialogs>File/Bounds menu item. 

78
 
RENDERDIR 

..\..\Manuals\SMV_User_Guide\SCRIPT_FIGURES 

XSCENECLIP 

0 -0.001600 0 1.601600 

YSCENECLIP 

0 -0.001600 0 1.601600 

ZSCENECLIP 

0 -0.003200 0 3.203200 

SCENECLIP 

0 

LOADFILE 

script_slice_test_05.sf 

SETTIMEVAL 

10.001744 

RENDERCLIP 

1 212 212 23 48 

RENDERONCE 

script_slice_test_10 

SETTIMEVAL 

20.009329 

RENDERCLIP 

1 212 212 23 48 

RENDERONCE 

script_slice_test_20 

SETTIMEVAL 

30.001192 

RENDERCLIP 

1 212 212 23 48 

RENDERONCE 

script_slice_test_30 

SETTIMEVAL 

40.009205 

RENDERCLIP 

1 212 212 23 48 

RENDERONCE 

script_slice_test_40 

Figure 9.2: Script commands generated using the Smokeview script recorder option. 

79
 
in Fig. 9.2 and the resulting generated images are given in Fig. 9.3. . 

Note that the keyword, RENDERDIR, may used to direct that rendered images be placed in any directory 

not just the current one. Also, the RENDERONCE keywords in this script have a blank line afterwards (put 

there by default by the Smokeview script recorder). In this case, Smokeview uses the default name for the 

resulting rendered image file. If this line is not blank, it is then used for the file name. 

1. Obtain the test case script_slice_test.fds from the Verification/Visualization directory in the FDS−SMV repository. 

2. Run the case with FDS 

3. After opening the case in Smokeview, select the Load/Unload>Script Options>Start Recording menu 

item. 

4. Load a slice file (doesn’t matter which one). 

5. Move the time bar to 10 s and then press the ‘r’ key. Repeat for 20 s, 30 s, and 40 s 

6. Unload the slice file. (Not necessary, this step just makes the script action more obvious.) 

7. Select the Load/Unload>Script Options>Stop Recording menu item. This is very important. The script 

will not be saved if you exit Smokeview without selecting this option. 

8. Run the script using the Load/Unload>Script Options menu . 

9.2.2 Example 2 

This example describes the steps used to create a script that is more involved. It is listed in Fig. 9.4 which 

in turn was used to create the images illustrated in Fig. 9.5. The script built here will create three images, a 

slice file viewed and clipped from the left at 5 s, the same slice file viewed from the center at 10 s, and again 

the same slice file viewed and clipped from the right at 15 s. The center slice is not clipped. 

Several preliminary steps need to be performed before script actions may be recorded. In particular a 

left and right view point will be defined and an .ini file will be setup that contains clipping values for the left 

and right slice file images. 

Obtaining and setting up the example 

1. Obtain the test case script_test.fds from the Verification/Visualization directory in 

the FDS−SMV repository. Copy this file to a separate directory if a local copy of the repository already 

exists ( so that svn updates will not overwrite the script file generated in this example). Of course, these 

steps may be repeated for any test case that have data files defined. 

2. Run the case with FDS 

3. Open the case in Smokeview 

4. Open the Scripts/Config panel of the File/Bounds dialog box, the Clip Geometry dialog box and the 

Viewpoints panel of the Motion/View/Render dialog box. 

80
 
10.0 s 20.0 s
 

30.0 s 40.0 s
 

Figure 9.3: Smokeview images generated using script detailed in Fig. 9.2
 

81
 
Preliminary Steps - Setting up the viewpoints 

1. Rotate the scene slightly to the right of center so that you can see the left side of the geometry. In 

the Viewpoints panel of the Motion/View/Render dialog change new view to left then click on the 

Add button. 

2. Rotate the scene slightly to the left of center so that you can see the right side of the geometry. In the 

Viewpoints panel of the Motion/View/Render dialog change new view to right then click on the 

Add button. 

3. Click the Save Settings button. 

An .ini file has now been saved with two custom view points defined named left and right. 

Preliminary Steps - Defining clip planes and creating additional .ini files 

Defining the left clipping plane. 

1. Click on the Clip Blockages + Data radio button, 

2. change the Clip Lower x value 0.5 after checking the checkbox next to edit field. 

3. Save an .ini file named script_test_left.ini by entering the text left in the suffix field of the Config files 

section of the Scripts/Config dialog. 

4. Click on the Set button then the Save script_test_left.ini button.
 

Defining the right clipping plane.
 

1. Click on the Clip Blockages + Data radio button, 

2. change Clip Upper x value 1.0 after checking checkbox next to edit field. 

3. Save an .ini file named script_test_right.ini by entering the text right in the suffix field of the Config 

files section of the Scripts/Config dialog. 

4. Click on the Set button then the Save script_test_right.ini button. 

Two .ini files named scripts_test_left.ini and scripts_test_right.ini have now 

been created. 

Recording the Script 

The script may be recorded now that the .ini files and viewpoints have been created. The following steps 

reference the Scripts/Config dialog. 

1. Click on the Start Recording button 

2. Load the y = 0.8 temperature slice from the Load/Unload menu. 

3. Generate the left image 

(a) Select the script_test_left.ini file and click on Load 

(b) Select the left view from the View menu. 

82
 
// note: The RENDERDIR pathname has been changed to point 

// to where the Smokeview User guide script figures are kept 

RENDERDIR 

..\..\Manuals\SMV_User_Guide\SCRIPT_FIGURES 

LOADINIFILE 

script_test.ini 

SETVIEWPOINT 

left 

LOADFILE 

script_test_05.sf 

SETTIMEVAL 

5.012974 

RENDERONCE 

script_test_left_05 

SETVIEWPOINT 

center 

SETTIMEVAL 

10.006555 

RENDERONCE 

script_test_center_10 

SETVIEWPOINT 

right 

SETTIMEVAL 

15.006024 

RENDERONCE 

script_test_right_15 

Figure 9.4: Script commands generated using the Smokeview script recorder option. 

(c) Set the time to 5.0 

(d) Set the render suffix to left_05 and press the Render button 

4. Generate the center image 

(a) Select the script_test.ini file and click on Load 

(b) Select external from the View menu. 

(c) Set the time to 10.0 

(d) Set the render suffix to right_10 and press the Render button 

5. Render the right image 

(a) Select the script_test_right.ini file and click on the Load button 

(b) Select the right view from the View menu. 

(c) Set the time to 15.0 

(d) Set the render suffix to right_15 and press the Render button 

6. Click on the Stop Recording button 

9.3 Script Glossary 

This section contains documentations for the script commands. Commands fall into three logical categories. 

Commands to load data files, commands to position the scene in both time and space and commands to 

output the scene to image files. 

83
 
Figure 9.5: Smokeview images generated using script detailed in Fig. 9.4
 

9.3.1 Loading and Unloading Files 

LOADFILE	 Use LOADFILE to load a particular file. Smokeview will determine what kind of file it is 

(3d smoke, slice, etc.) and call the appropriate routine to load the data. 

Use other LOAD commands to load files of the specified type for all meshes. Usage: 

LOADFILE
 

file (char)
 

LOADINIFILE Use LOADINIFILE to load a configuration of .ini file. Usage: 

LOADINIFILE
 

file (char)
 

LOADVFILE Use LOADVFILE to load a particular vector slice file. Smokeview will load the file 

specified along with the corresponding U, V and W velocity slice files if they are available. 

Usage: 

LOADVFILE
 

file (char)
 

LOADBOUNDARY Load a boundary file of a particular type. The type is the same as what Smokeview 

displays in the Load menus for boundary files. Usage: 

LOADBOUNDARY
 

type (char)
 

LOAD3DSMOKE soot mass fraction 

84
 
LOAD3DSMOKE Load a 3D smoke file. Two types are supported soot mass fraction or 

HRRPUV. Usage: 

LOAD3DSMOKE
 

type (char)
 

LOADPARTICLES Load particle files. Only particle files created with FDS version 5 or later are 

supported. Usage: 

LOADPARTICLES 

PARTCLASSCOLOR Show a particular particle class. Class names supported for a given run are 

displayed in the Particle Class Smokeview menu. Usage: 

PARTCLASSCOLOR
 

color (char)
 

PARTCLASSTYPE Show a particular particle type. Type names supported for a given run are displayed in the Particle Type Smokeview menu. Usage: 

PARTCLASSTYPE
 

type (char)
 

LOADPLOT3D Load a Plot3D file for a given mesh at a specified time. Usage: 

LOADPLOT3D 

mesh number (an integer form 1 to the number of meshes) time (float) 

PLOT3DPROPS Specifies Plot3D plot properties that apply to all Plot3D plots currently being displayed. Usage: 

PLOT3DPROPS 

variable_index (int) showvector (0/1) (int) vector_length_index 

(int) display_type (int) vector_length (float) 

where 

•	 variable_index - is an integer from 1 to the number of Plot3D file components (usually 5), 

•	 showvector - is 1 to draw vectors, 0 otherwise 

•	 vector_length_index, is an integer index from 0 to 6 pointing to an internal Smokeview 

array used to determine vector length. 

•	 display_type - is 0 for stepped contours, 1 for line contours and 2 for continuous contours 

•	 vector_length - if vector_length_index is negative then Smokeview uses vector_length set 

the PLOT3D vector length 

SHOWPLOT3DDATA	 Specifies a particular Plot3D plot to be displayed (mesh number, whether visible or not, orientation and position) Usage: 

SHOWPLOT3DDATA 

mesh number (int) plane orientation (int) display show/hide (0/1) (int) 

position (float) 

85
 
where 

•	 mesh number - the mesh number (ranges from 1 to the number of meshes), 

•	 orientation - direction or orientation of the plane being plotted, 1 for YZ planes, 2 for XZ 

planes and 3 for XY planes 

•	 display - 0 if Plot3D plane is hidden, 1 if it is displayed 

•	 position - position of Plot3D plane 

LOADISO	 Load an iso-surface file of a given type. The type is the same as what Smokeview displays 

in the Load menus for iso-surface files. Usage: 

LOADISO
 

type (char)
 

LOADSLICE Load a slice file of a given type. The type is the same as what Smokeview displays in the 

Load menus for slice files. The plane orientation is specified by using 1 for x, 2 for y and 3 for 

z. Usage: 

LOADSLICE
 

type (char)
 

1/2/3 (int) val (float)
 

LOADVSLICE Load a vector slice file of a given type. The type is the same as what Smokeview 

displays in the Load menus for slice files. The plane orientation is specified by using 1 for x, 2 

for y and 3 for z. Usage: 

LOADVSLICE
 

type (char)
 

1/2/3 (int) val (float)
 

LOADVOLSMOKE Load files needed to view volume rendered smoke. One may either load files for 

all meshes or for one particular mesh. Usage: 

LOADVOLSMOKE
 

mesh number (-1 for all meshes) (int)
 

LOADVOLSMOKEFRAME Load a volume rendered smoke frame. Usage: 

LOADVOLSMOKEFRAME
 

mesh_index (int) frame_index (int)
 

If the mesh_index is positive then volume rendered smoke for that mesh index is loaded. If the 

mesh_index is negative then volume rendered smoke for all meshes is loaded. 

UNLOADALL Unload all data files currently loaded. Usage: 

UNLOADALL 

9.3.2 Controlling the Scene 

EXIT Cause Smokeview to quit. Usage: 

86
 
EXIT 

CBARFLIP Display the color bar in the opposite orientation from which it was defined. Usage: 

CBARFLIP 

CBARNORMAL Usage: Display the color bar in the same orientation as it was defined. 

CBARNORMAL 

KEYBOARD Passes a keyboard character to Smokeview Usage: 

KEYBOARD
 

c
 

or 

KEYBOARD 

ALT c 

where c is any keyboard character (recognized by Smokeview) and ALT is the ALT key. 

LOADTOUR Load a tour of a given name. Usage: 

LOADTOUR
 

type (char)
 

SETTIMEVAL Set the time for displaying data to a specified value. Usage: 

SETTIMEVAL
 

time (float)
 

SETVIEWPOINT Set a view point . The view point must have been previously defined and saved in 

an .ini file. Usage: 

SETVIEWPOINT
 

viewpoint (char)
 

UNLOADTOUR Unload a tour. 

UNLOADTOUR 

XSCENECLIP Sets clipping planes along the X axis. Portions of the scene before xmin or after xmax 

are hidden if setxmin or setxmax are set to 1 respectively. Usage: 

XSCENECLIP
 

setxmin xmin setxmax xmax
 

YSCENECLIP Sets clipping planes along the Y axis. Portions of the scene before ymin or after ymax 

are hidden if setymin or setymax are set to 1 respectively. Usage: 

87
 
YSCENECLIP
 

setymin ymin setymax ymax
 

ZSCENECLIP Sets clipping planes along the Z axis. Portions of the scene before zmin or after zmax 

are hidden if setzmin or setzmax are set to 1 respectively. Usage: 

ZSCENECLIP
 

setzmin zmin setzmax zmax
 

9.3.3 Rendering Images 

RENDERCLIP Specify clip offsets in pixels when rendering a scene. Usage: 

RENDERDIR
 

flag left right bottom top
 

where clipping is turn on if flag is set to 1 and turned off if flag is set to 0. 

RENDERDIR Specify a directory where rendered files should go. Usage: 

RENDERDIR
 

directory name
 

Smokeview automatically converts directory separators (‘/’ for Linux/Mac systems and ‘//’ for 

Windows systems) to the separator appropriate for the host system. 

RENDERONCE Render the current scene. Usage: 

RENDERONCE
 

file name (optional)
 

Smokeview will assign the filename automatically if the entry after the RENDERONCE keyword 

is blank. 

RENDERDOUBLEONCE Render the current scene at double resolution. Usage: 

RENDERDOUBLEONCE
 

file name (optional)
 

As with RENDERONCE, Smokeview will assign the filename automatically if the entry after the 

RENDERDOUBLEONCE keyword is blank. 

RENDERALL Render a sequence of frames. By default this command renders every frame starting 

with the first. One may also specify a starting frame index (default: 0) and a skip value (default: 

1) indicating the difference in indices between rendered frames. Usage: 

RENDERALL 

skip first 

file name base (char) (or blank to use the Smokeview default) 

The command 

RENDERALL 

88
 
0 1 

casename 

would render all frames while the command 

RENDERALL
 

1 3
 

casename
 

renders every third frame starting with the second (index 1). 

VOLSMOKERENDERALL Render a sequence of volume rendered frames. As with RENDERALL, 

this command by default command renders every frame starting with the first. One may also 

specify a starting frame index (default: 0) and a skip value (default: 1) indicating the difference 

in indices between rendered frames. 

This command differs from the RENDERALL command by automatically loading volume 

rendered smoke files but only one frame (time step) at a time as they are rendered. This allows 

one to create volume rendered movies for data sets too large to be viewed within Smokeview. 

VOLRENDERALL 

skip first 

file name base (char) (or blank to use the Smokeview default) 

89
 
90
 
Part III
 

Miscellaneous Topics
 

91
 

Chapter 10 

Coloring Data 

10.1 Overview 

A colorbar is used to map data with color. A colorbar is normally visualized by displaying its color in 

sequence forming a bar or rectangle. When designing a colorbar, it is convenient to also visualize it by 

thinking of color spatially associating red, green and blue color components with x, y and z spatial coordinates. A colorbar may then be thought of as a path within a cube where the lower left bottom cube corner 

is colored black and the upper right top corner is colored white. Other corners are colored red, green, blue, 

cyan, magenta and yellow depending on their color components present. Figure 10.1 gives several examples 

of colorbars pre-defined by Smokeview. Each image was generated using the colorbar editor illustrated in 

Fig. 10.2. 

A colorbar in Smokeview consists of a set of color nodes forming a path within a cube. This way 

of visualizing it is helpful in defining new colorbars by allowing one to more easily judge changes in color 

within the colorbar. Though most colorbars paths are continuous, a colorbar path need not be. Discontinuous 

colorbars are useful for highlighting regions in a simulation with a particular property, for example where 

the temperature exceeds the boiling point of water or in a topographic map where a shoreline (zero elevation) 

occurs. Figure 10.1c gives an example of a colorbar with a break. This colorbar jumps in the middle from a 

shade of cyan to a shade of yellow. 

10.2 Using the Colorbar Editor 

The Colorbar Editor dialog box is opened from the Dialogs>Customize Colorbar menu entry. When this 

menu item is selected, a spatial representation of the currently selected colorbar is displayed within the 

Smokeview scene along the Colorbar Editor dialog box. The FDS simulation scene is hidden by default but 

may be shown along with the colorbar display by un-checking the Hide scene checkbox. 

The colorbar is represented visually in two ways. First, as a series of colored nodes and lines. The nodes 

and lines are a spatial representation of the colorbar where as stated earlier the r, g, b color components 

are mapped to x, y, z spatial coordinates. Second, as a rectangle with a series of colored squares and 

numbered indices displayed along side. (This rectangle is equivalent to the colorbar displayed beside a 

regular Smokeview scene). The numbered indices indicate the position in the colorbar where the node color 

occurs. Once the node indices and colors are defined, Smokeview interpolates to form a table of colors (256 

rows, 3 columns). 

The Colorbar Editor dialog box contains a list of colorbars pre-defined by Smokeview and others if 

93
 
a) rainbow b) blue->red
 

c) blue->red split d) white->black 

Figure 10.1: Colorbar Examples. Several colorbars are presented both as a 1D strip of changing color, each 

color corresponding to a different data value and as a 3D path where the x, y, z spatial locations of a color 

node correspond to the red, green and blue components of the color at that node. 

94
 
Figure 10.2: Colorbar Editor dialog box. 

defined by the user. A new colorbar is created by selecting the New button . The new colorbar is created 

initially by making a copy of the currently selected colorbar. Once created, it may be altered by adding/deleting nodes with the Add/Delete buttons and altering color with the red, green, blue spinners. Note that 

only colorbars created by a user may be changed. The Add/Delete and other buttons for modifying colorbar 

characteristics are only enabled for user defined colorbars. They are disabled for Smokeview predefined colorbars. Colorbar definitions (only colorbars created by the user) are saved in the Smokeview configuration 

(.ini) file. 

The bottom portion of the Colorbar Editor dialog box is used to define colors for extreme data. That is, 

data occurring below the specified minimum or above the specified maximum. This data may be highlighted 

by selecting the Highlight Extreme Data checkbox. The color used to highlight this data may also be 

specified. The colors defined using this dialog box are shown in the triangular regions at the top and bottom 

of the colorbar. 

95
 
96
 
Chapter 11 

Smokeview - Demonstrator Mode 

A simplified version of Smokeview may be invoked in order to present a fire scenario for training or demonstration purposes. All actions are performed using one unified dialog box, illustrated in Fig. 11.1. This 

dialog box is opened for the user at startup and allows the user to select data to be viewed, tours to travel 

along, viewpoints to observe and scene manipulation to perform. Smokeview loads data when it starts up. 

The intent is to allow one not using Smokeview daily to more easily make use of Smokeview’s capabilities. 

In order to setup this demonstration mode, several tasks need to be performed. The results of these tasks 

are recorded in the casename.ini file. These tasks are detailed below. 

1. Define one or more tours that give the user an overview of the data or that highlight important aspects
 

of the scenario. Tours are setup using the Touring dialog box.
 

2. Define one or more viewpoints that highlight some important aspect of the simulation scenario. The
 

viewpoint is defined by manipulating the scene as desired and then selecting the View>Save menu item.
 

The viewpoint label may be changed by using the Motion/View/Render dialog box.
 

3. Pick the data to be viewed from a set of temperature and oxygen slice files and a set of 3D smoke and
 

HRRPUV files.
 

(a) Load the desired files into Smokeview. 

(b) Select these files for auto-loading by selecting the Auto Load Now panel in the File/Bounds dialog 

box and pressing the Save Auto Load File List button. 

(c) Compress these files with Smokezip using the -auto option . This option will only compress 

files selected with Smokeview for autoloading. Note that compression can either be performed at a 

command line by typing Smokezip -auto casename or by using the Load/Unload>Compression 

menu item. 

4. Save the settings and choices selected by saving a casename.ini configuration file for the case. 

5. Create a .svd file by copying the casename.smv to casename.svd . 

6. Copy all the compressed files and the files: casename.ini, casename.end and casename.svd
 

file to a separate directory. This directory is then is what one would distribute to be demonstrated.
 

The demonstrator mode of Smokeview is activated by double-clicking on casename.svd. Smokeview treats this file just like casename.smv except that it opens up the Demonstrator Mode dialog 

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Figure 11.1: Demonstrator dialog box. This dialog box allows the user to 1) switch between temperature, oxygen and realistic views of the data, select tours and viewpoints and to manipulate the scene using 

translations and rotations. 

box and hides the standard Smokeview menus. Smokeview then loads the selected slice, 3D smoke and 

HRR files and opens the dialog box illustrated in Fig. 11.1. 

This dialog box is used to toggle the data viewed by pressing the Smoke/Fire , Temperature 

or Oxygen buttons. The scene may be manipulated by clicking the mouse in one of the arrow buttons 

and dragging. The scene may also be manipulated as before by pressing the mouse within the scene and 

dragging. Views and/or tours may be selected using the corresponding pull down box. 

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Chapter 12 

Texture Maps 

Texture mapping is a technique used by Smokeview to make a scene appear more realistic by pasting images onto obstructions or vents. For example, to apply a wood paneling image to a wall, add the keywords TEXTURE_MAP=’paneling.jpg’, TEXTURE_WIDTH=1., TEXTURE_HEIGHT=2. to 

the &SURF line where paneling.jpg is the JPEG file containing the texture map (SGI users should use RGB 

files instead of JPEG) and TEXTURE_WIDTH and TEXTURE_HEIGHT are the characteristic dimensions of the texture map in meters. Note that the image will not appear when Smokeview first starts up. The 

user must select the texture maps using the Show/Hide menu. 

One can create texture maps using a digital camera or obtain them commercially. The maps should be 

seamless so that no breaks or seams appear when the maps are tiled on a blockage or vent. This is important, 

because Smokeview replicates the image as often as necessary to cover the blockage or vent. 

When the texture does have a pattern, for example windows or bricks, the keyword TEXTURE_ORIGIN 

may be used to specify where the pattern should begin. For example, 

&OBST XB=1.0,2.0,3.0,4.0,5.0,7.0, SURF_ID='wood paneling', 

TEXTURE_ORIGIN=1.0,3.0,5.0 / 

will apply paneling to an obstruction whose dimensions are 1 m by 1 m by 2 m, such that the image of the 

paneling will be positioned at the point (1.0,3.0,5.0). The default value of TEXTURE_ORIGIN is (0,0,0), 

and the global default can be changed by added a TEXTURE_ORIGIN statement to the MISC line. 

Figure 12.1 shows a simple application of a texture applied to two different blockages and a vent. The 

same jpeg file was used in two different &SURF lines so that the texture could be stretched by differing 

amounts (using the TEXTURE_WIDTH parameter.) The FDS data file used to create this Figure follows. 

&HEAD CHID='sillytexture', TITLE='Silly Test Case SVN $Revision: 12143 $' / 

&MISC TEXTURE_ORIGIN=0.1,0.1,0.1 / 

&MESH IJK=20,20,02, XB=0.0,1.0,0.0,1.0,0.0,1.0 /
 

&TIME T_END=0. /
 

&SURF ID = 'TEXTURE 1'
 

TEXTURE_MAP= 'nistleft.jpg' 

TEXTURE_WIDTH=0.6 

TEXTURE_HEIGHT=0.2 / 

&SURF ID = 'TEXTURE 2' 

TEXTURE_MAP= 'nistleft.jpg' 

TEXTURE_WIDTH=0.4 

TEXTURE_HEIGHT=0.2 / 

&OBST XB=0.1,0.3,0.1,0.7,0.1,0.3, SURF_ID='TEXTURE 1' / 

&OBST XB=0.5,0.9,0.3,0.7,0.1,0.5, SURF_ID='TEXTURE 2', 

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Figure 12.1: Texture map example. The same texture was applied to two different blockages and a vent 

(with different widths) by assigning different TEXTURE_WIDTH parameters in the input file. 

TEXTURE_ORIGIN=0.5,0.3,0.1 / 

&VENT XB=0.0,0.0,0.2,0.8,0.2,0.4, SURF_ID='TEXTURE 1', 

TEXTURE_ORIGIN=0.0,0.2,0.2 / 

&VENT XB=0.3,0.9,0.0,0.0,0.3,0.5, SURF_ID='TEXTURE 1', 

TEXTURE_ORIGIN=0.9,0.0,0.3 / 

&TAIL / 

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Chapter 13 

Using Smokeview to Debug FDS Input Files 

One of the most difficult tasks in setting up an FDS input file is defining the geometry (blockages, vent 

locations, etc.) properly. Smokeview may be used to debug FDS input files by making short model runs 

and observing whether blockages, vents and other geometric features of a model run are located correctly. 

Blockages may then be created or changed using a text editor and location information provided by the 

Examine Blockages dialog box called from the Dialogs menu. 

The following is a general procedure for identifying problems in FDS input files. Assume that the FDS 

input data file is named testcase1.fds. 

1. In the FDS input file, set the stop time to 0.0 using TWFIN=0.0 on the &TIME line. This causes FDS
 

to read the input file and create a .smv file without performing lengthy startup calculations.
 

2. Run the FDS model (for details see the FDS User’s Guide [4]) 

FDS creates a file named testcase1.smv containing information that Smokeview uses to visualize 

model. 

3. To visualize the model, open testcase1.smv with Smokeview by either typing smokeview testcase1 

at a command shell prompt or if on the PC by double-clicking the file testcase1.smv. 

4. Make corrections to the FDS data file, if necessary.	 Using the COLOR or RGB option of the OBST
 

keyword to more easily identify blockages to be edited. For example, to change a blockage’s color to
 

red use:
 

&OBST XB=0.0,1.0,0.0,1.0,0.0,1.0, COLOR='RED' / 

or 

&OBST XB=0.0,1.0,0.0,1.0,0.0,1.0 RGB=255,0,0 / 

Save testcase1.fds file and go back to step 2. 

5. If corrections are unnecessary, then change the TWFIN keyword back to the desired final simulation
 

time, remove any unnecessary FDS COLOR keywords and run the case.
 

13.1 Examining Blockages 

Blockages locations and SURF properties may be examined by selecting the menu item Examine Blockages 

which opens up the dialog box illustrated in Fig. 13.1. Note, clipping planes need to be turned off when 

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Figure 13.1: Examine blockages dialog box. 

using this dialog box. Associating unique colors with each surface allows the user to quickly determine 

whether blockages are defined with the proper surfaces. One can then verify that these modeling elements 

have been defined and positioned as intended. Position coordinates are displayed snapped to the nearest grid 

line or as specified in the input file. 

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Chapter 14 

Making Movies 

A movie can be made of a Smokeview animation by converting the visualized scene into a series of PNG 

or JPEG files, one file for each time step and then combining the individual images together into one movie 

file. More specifically: 

1. Set up Smokeview by orienting the scene and loading the desired data files. 

2. Select the Options/Render menu and pick the desired frame skip value. The more frames you include 

in the animation, the smoother it will look. Of course more frames result in larger file sizes. Choose 

fewer frames if the movie is to appear on a web site. 

3. Use a program such as the Antechinus Media Editor (http://www.c-point.com), Apple Quicktime Pro (http://www.quicktime.com), or Adobe Premiere Pro (http://www.adobe.com), 

to assemble the JPEGS or PNGS rendered in the previous step into a movie file. 

The default Smokeview image size is 640 × 480 . This size is fine if the movie is to appear in a presentation located on a local hard disk. If the movie is to be placed on a web site then care needs to be 

taken to insure that the generated movie file is a reasonable size. Two suggestions are to reduce the image 

size to 320 × 240 or smaller by modifying the WINDOWWIDTH and WINDOWHEIGHT smokeview.ini 

keywords and to reduce the number of frames to 300 or less by skipping intermediate frames via the Options/Render menu. 

Sometimes when copying or capturing a Smokeview scene it is desirable, or even necessary, to have 

a margin around the scene. This is because the capturing system does not include the entire scene but 

itself captures an indented portion of the scene. To indent the scene, either press the “h” key or select the 

Option>Viewpoint>Offset Window menu item. The default indentation is 45 pixels. This may be changed 

by adding/editing the WINDOW_OFFSET keyword in the smokeview.ini file. 

Note, the Smokeview animation must be running when the render command is selected or only one 

frame will be saved instead of the entire image sequence. 

103
 
104
 
Chapter 15 

Annotating the Scene 

15.1 Overview 

Smokeview scenes may be annotated by adding ticks with associated text documenting their location or by 

adding text strings at arbitrary locations and time durations. Both of these annotations are added with the 

User Ticks and the User Label dialog box respectively. These dialog boxes are both invoked by selecting the 

Dialogs>Display menu item. 

15.2 User Ticks Settings Dialog Box 

The User Ticks Settings dialog box allows one to place ticks and labels along one or more coordinate axes. 

The user may specify tick spacing, number of sub-tick intervals and how far axes extend. There is an 

automatic placement option that allows the tick axes to be placed based upon the orientation of the scene. 

The user may specify which tick axes are visible if the automatic placement option is not invoked. Figure 

15.1 illustrates the User Ticks Settings dialog box. It is a panel of the Display dialog box. Figure 15.2 shows 

the ticks and labels resulting from the dialog box. 

15.3 User Label Dialog Box 

The User Label dialog box allows one to place text strings at arbitrary locations within the scene. The user 

may also control the time interval when they are visible. Figure and at arbitrary time intervals. Figure 15.3 

illustrates the User Label dialog box. It is a panel within Display dialog box. It has controls for specifying 

the text string, (x, y,z) location, start and stop time and color. 

15.4 TICKS and LABEL keywords 

Tick marks and label annotation can be also placed within the 3D scene using the TICKS and LABEL 

keywords. FDS places tick marks and labels documenting the scene dimensions. To replace or customize 

these annotations add the TICK keyword to a .smv file using the following format: 

TICKS 

xb yb zb xe ye ze nticks 

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Figure 15.1: Ticks dialog box. The Ticks dialog box is invoked by selecting Dialogs>Display.
 

Figure 15.2: Annotation example using the Ticks dialog box
 

106
 
Figure 15.3: User Label dialog box. The User Label dialog box is invoked by selecting Dialogs>Display.
 

107
 
ticklength tickdir r g b tickwidth 

where xb, yb, and zb are the x, y and z coordinates of the first tick; xe, ye and ze are the x, y and z 

coordinates of the last tick and nticks is the number of ticks. The coordinate dimensions are in physical 

units, the same units used to set up the FDS geometry. The parameter ticklength specifies the length 

of the tick in physical units. The parameter tickdir specifies the tick direction. For example 1(-1) places 

ticks in the positive(negative) x direction. Similarly, 2(-2) and 3(-3) place ticks in the positive(negative) y 

and positive(negative) z directions. 

The color parameters r, g and b are the red, green and blue components of the tick color each ranging 

from 0.0 to 1.0. The foreground color (white by default) may be set by setting any or all of the r, g and 

b components to a negative number. The tickwidth parameter specifies tick width in pixels. Fractional 

widths may be specified. 

The LABEL keyword allows a text string to be added within a Smokeview scene. The label color and 

start and stop appearance time may also be specified. The format is given by 

LABEL 

x y z r g b tstart tstop 

label 

where (x, y, z) is the label location in Cartesian coordinates and r, g, b are the red, green and blue 

color components ranging from 0.0 to 1.0. Again, if a negative value is specified then the foreground color 

will be used instead (white is the default). The parameters, tstart and tstop indicate the time interval 

when the label is visible. The text string is specified on the next line (label). 

Figure 15.4 shows how the TICKS and LABEL keywords can be used together to create a ruler with 

major and minor tick marks illustrated in Fig. 15.5. 

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TICKS 

0.0 0.0 0.0 8.0 0.0 0.0 5 

0.5 -2.0 -1. -1.0 -1.0 4.0 

TICKS 

1.0 0.0 0.0 9.0 0.0 0.0 5 

0.25 -2.0 -1. -1.0 -1.0 4.0 

TICKS 

0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.0 3 

0.5 -1.0 -1. -1.0 -1.0 4.0 

TICKS 

0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.0 0.0 5 

0.5 -1.0 -1. -1.0 -1.0 4.0 

LABEL 

0.0 -0.6 0.0 -1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 20.0 

0 

LABEL 

2.0 -0.6 0.0 -1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 20.0 

2 

LABEL 

4.0 -0.6 0.0 -1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 20.0 

4 

LABEL 

6.0 -0.6 0.0 -1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 20.0 

6 

LABEL 

8.0 -0.6 0.0 -1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 20.0 

8 

LABEL 

9.5 -0.6 0.0 -1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 20.0 

m 

Figure 15.4: TICKS and LABEL commands used to create image in Fig. 15.5 

Figure 15.5: Annotation example using the TICKS and LABEL keyword.
 

109
 
110
 
Chapter 16
 

Utilities
 

Several utilities are included with the FDS/Smokeview distribution allowing one to more easily analyze 

and generate data. Smokezip may be used to compress FDS data files resulting in quicker load times in 

Smokeview. Smokediff may be used to compare two FDS cases. Smokediff generates another .smv file and 

a set of data files which can be viewed with Smokeview. Background may be used to take advantage of 

multiple core computers by running more than one FDS case at a time. This is most useful when running a 

long list of FDS cases. Background runs a case whenever the CPU load is below a specified level. 

16.1 Compressing Data - Using Smokezip to reduce FDS file sizes 

3D smoke, boundary, isosurface and slice files may be compressed using the utility Smokezip. FDS data 

files may also be compressed from within Smokeview using the compression menu item found in the Load­

/Unload menu. File compression may also be activated from the Compressions, Autoload section of the 

File/Bounds dialog box illustrated in Fig. 16.1. Compression is performed using the ZLIB compression 

library (see http://www.zlib.org). Smokeview compresses files in the background allowing one to 

continue visualizing cases. Smokeview adds the label ZLIB to Load menu entries for any file that has been 

compressed. Smokezip adds the extension .svz to any FDS data file that has been compressed. 

The usage for Smokezip (which may be obtained by typing Smokezip -help at a command line) is 

smokezip 1.4.6(16458) - Aug 12 2013 

Compress FDS data files 

smokezip [options] casename 

casename - Smokeview .smv file for case to be compressed 

options: 

-c - cleans or removes all compressed files 

-t nthread - Compress nthread files at a time (up to 16) 

overwrite options: 

-f - overwrites all compressed files 

-2 - overwrites 2d slice compressed files 

-3 - overwrites 3d smoke files 

-b - overwrites boundary compressed files 

-part2iso - generate isosurfaces from particle data 

bound options: 

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Figure 16.1: File/Bounds dialog box showing compression and autoload options. 3D smoke, boundary and 

slice files may be compressed using Smokezip. All currently loaded files may be loaded automatically when 

Smokeview first starts by selecting the autoload checkbox. 

-bounds - estimate data bounds for all file types
 

-bb - estimate data bounds for boundary files
 

-bs - estimate data bounds for slice files
 

-no_chop - do not chop or truncate slice data. Smokezip compresses
 

slice data truncating data above and below chop values
 

specified in the .ini file
 

compress options: 

-n3 - do not compress 3d smoke files 

-nb - do not compress boundary files 

-ns - do not compress slice files 

output options: 

-auto - compress only files that are auto-loaded by Smokeview 

-d destdir - copies compressed files (and files needed by Smokeview 

to view the case) to the directory destdir
 

-s GLOBsourcedir - specifies directory containing source files
 

-demo - Creates the files (compressed and .svd ) needed by the
 

Smokeview demonstrator mode. Compresses files that are autoloaded, 

uses (20.0,620.0) and (0.0,0.23) for temperature and oxygen bounds 

and creates the .svd file which activates the Smokeview demonstrator 

mode. 

-skip skipval - skip frames when compressing files 

-h - display this message 

Smokezip either determines data bounds itself (if the -bounds option was specified) or uses min and 

max values found in the casename.ini file. These bounds are used to map four byte floating point data found 

in FDS data files to one byte color indices used by Smokeview. The algorithms for determining the data 

112
 
mappings used by Smokeview and Smokezip are identical so it should result in the same views. 

Particle files may be converted to isosurface files using the -part2iso option as in Smokezip 

-part2iso casename. The resulting isosurface file highlights particle boundaries (where particle density is 0.5 particles per grid cell). These isosurface files are accessible in the .smv file named casename_smvzip.smv. 

16.2 Differencing Data - Using Smokediff to compare two FDS cases 

The utility Smokediff compares two FDS cases with the same geometry. Smokediff examines two .smv 

files looking for boundary, slice and Plot3D files containing the same type of data and located in the same 

region in space and/or time. Smokediff then subtracts data in one file from corresponding data in the other 

generating a new .smv file and new differenced boundary, slice and Plot3D data files. To compare the two 

.smv files, casename1.smv and casename2.smv one would use the command 

Smokediff -smv casename1 casename2 

which opens Smokeview to examine the differenced data after Smokediff completes. Smokediff subtracts 

the data referenced in casename1 from the data referenced in casename2. For slice files, Smokediff allows 

the grid in casename2 to be refined by a factor of 2. Other usage options for Smokediff are detailed below 

smokediff [options] smv_case1 smv_case2 

version: 1.0.6 (revision 15782) - Aug 12 2013 

smokediff compares two FDS cases by subtracting data referenced in smv_case2 from 

corresponding data referenced in smv_case1 (smv_case1 - smv_case2). Slice, PLOT3d 

and boundary files are supported. Differenced results may be viewed by opening 

smv_case1_diff.smv in Smokeview or by using the -smv option when running smokediff. 

Mesh bounds must be identical for corresponsing meshes. Mesh resolutions must be 

identical when differencing boundary or PLOT3D files. The x, y, and/or z mesh 

resolution in smv_case1 must be an integer multiple of the corresponding x, y, z 

mesh 

resolution in smv_case2 when differencing slice files. 

-h - display this message 

-v - display version information 

-s1 dir1 - directory containing case smv_case1.smv 

-s2 dir2 - directory containing case smv_case2.smv 

-d dir - directory containing created differenced files 

-nb - do not difference boundary files 

-np - do not difference Plot3d files 

-ns - do not difference slice files 

-smv - view case in smokeview when differencing is complete 

-type label - difference only data of type label (in boundary and slice files) 

smv_case1,smv_case2 - Two smokeview cases to compare. 

16.3 Background - A utility to run multiple programs simultaneously 

This section explains the use of the utility named background.exe, what it is and how it might be useful 

to FDS users. It is included with the Windows and Linux FDS/Smokeview bundles. The Windows start 

command can be used to run Windows programs in the background. background.exe has the additional 

113
 
5.0 s 10.0 s
 

30.0 s 60.0 s 

Figure 16.2: Slice file snapshots of differenced temperature data. 

114
 
feature of checking the current CPU usage level and only starting new programs when the usage level is 

below a specified level. This enables one to submit a long list of FDS cases without saturating the CPU, 

since only a small number (depending on the maximum usage level specified) will be running at any one 

time. 

MPI is a message passing software library used to enable implement parallel processing at the program 

i.e., FORTRAN source code level. This enables one to make use of multiple CPUs thereby speeding up a 

calculation. background.exe allows parallel processing to occur at the program level. It is often the case that 

one is doing a parameter study or running a long list of cases to verify the use of FDS. Typically you would 

create a windows batch file (.bat) containing a list of commands like 

fds casename_1.fds 

.... 

fds casename_n.fds 

On a Windows system, each entry in the above list will not start until the previous entry has completed, 

even if the computer has multiple cores or CPUs. 

Unix/Linux based systems have the capability of putting computer jobs in the background, meaning 

that when a job is run, control returns immediately allowing the next job in the list to start running. With 

computers that have multiple cores or CPUS, one can then run more than one job simultaneously. 

Here is how one might use background with FDS 

background -d 1.0 -u 90 fds casename.fds 

This command runs “fds casename.fds” after waiting 1 s and ensuring that the CPU usage is less than 90 

%. If the CPU usage happens to be more than 90 %, the program background waits to submit the fds command until the usage drops below 90 % . Once this occurs, it runs the command, fds casename.fds. 

The purpose of the delay before submitting a job is to give windows a chance to update the usage level 

from the previous invocations. This feature is a fail safe to ensure that a large number of jobs are not 

submitted at once. 

The background utility is designed to use in a windows batch file. For example, suppose you have a list 

of 5 FDS jobs you want to run in a windows batch file. On a windows computer you would have a batch 

file with the contents something like 

fds case1.fds 

fds case2.fds 

fds case3.fds 

fds case4.fds 

fds case5.fds 

Using background with a 2 second delay and 75 per cent maximum load level, you would change your 

script to something like 

background -d 2 -u 75 fds case1.fds 

background -d 2 -u 75 fds case2.fds 

background -d 2 -u 75 fds case3.fds 

background -d 2 -u 75 fds case4.fds 

background -d 2 -u 75 fds case5.fds 

Help information for background may be obtained at the command line by typing background -h 

which gives: 

115
 
background 1.0(12156) - Jul 1 2013 

Runs a program in the background when resources are available 

Usage: 

background [-d delay time (s) -h -u max_usage -v] prog [arguments] 

where 

-d dtime - wait dtime seconds before running prog in the background 

-debug - display debug messages 

-h - display this message 

-u max - wait to run prog until cpu usage is less than max (25-100%) 

-v - display version information 

prog - program to run in the background 

arguments - command line arguments of prog 

Example: 

background -d 1.5 -u 50 prog arg1 arg2 

runs prog (with arguments arg1 and arg2) after 1.5 seconds 

and when the CPU usage drops below 50% 

116
 
Chapter 17 

Summary 

Often fire modeling is looked upon with skepticism because of the perception that eye-catching images 

shroud the underlying physics. However, if the visualization is done well, it can be used to assess the quality 

of the simulation technique. The user of FDS chooses a numerical grid on which to discretize the governing 

equations. The more grid cells, the better but more time-consuming the simulation. The payoff for investing 

in faster computers and running bigger calculations is the proportional gain in calculation accuracy and 

realism manifested by the images. There is no better way to demonstrate the quality of the calculation than 

by showing the realistic behavior of the fire. 

Up to now, most visualization techniques have provided useful ways of analyzing the output of a calculation, like contour and streamline plots, without much concern for realism. A rainbow-colored contour map 

slicing down through the middle of a room is fine for researchers, but for those who are only accustomed to 

looking at real smoke-filled rooms, it may not have as much meaning. Good visualization needs to provide 

as much information as the rainbow contour map but in a way that speaks to modelers and non-modelers 

alike. A good example is smoke visibility. Unlike temperature or species concentration, smoke visibility is 

not a local quantity but rather depends on the viewpoint of the eye and the depth of field. Advanced simulators and games create the illusion of smoke or fog in ways that are not unlike the techniques employed by 

fire models to handle thermal radiation. The visualization of smoke and fire by Smokeview is an example 

of the graphics hardware and software actually computing results rather than just drawing pretty pictures. 

A common concern in the design of smoke control systems is whether or not building occupants will be 

able to see exit signs at various stages of a fire. FDS can predict the amount of soot is located at any given 

point, but that doesn’t answer the question. The harder task is to compute on the fly within the visualization 

program what the occupant would see and not see. In this sense, Smokeview is not merely a post-processor, 

but rather an integral part of the analysis. 

The purpose of Smokeview is to help one gain insight into the results of fire modeling simulations. 

Some areas of future work pertaining to the technical aspects of Smokeview include improving the visual 

modeling of smoke and fire and improving Smokeview’s ability to handle larger cases. General strategies for 

improving Smokeview’s ability to visualize cases and therefore to improve the understanding of computed 

fire flow are discussed in more detail in the Smokeview Technical Guide [2]. 

117
 
118
 
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Maryland, May 2002. 3 

[12] Brian W. Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie, and Dennis M. Ritchie. C Programming Language (2nd Edition). 

Prentice Hall PTR, March 1988. 3 

[13] T. M. Ellis, Ivor R. PHilips, and Thomas M. Lahey. Fortran 90 Programming. Addison-Wesley, 1994. 

3
 

[14] The Khronos OpenGL ARB Working Group Dave Shreiner.	 OpenGL Programming Guide - The
 

Official Guide to Learning OpenGL, Version 3.0 and 3.1. Addison-Wesley, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 7
 

edition, 2009. 3
 

[15] Mark J. Kilgard. OpenGL Programming for the X Window System. Addison-Wesley Developers Press,
 

Reading, Massachussets, 1996. 3, 125
 

[16] Thomas Boutell.	 CGI Programming in C & Perl. Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Reading, Massachussets, 1996. 3, 133
 

[17] Thomas Boutell. GD version 2.0.7, http://www.boutell.com/gd/, November 2002. 3 

[18] Guy	 Eric Schalnat, Andreas Dilger, and Glenn Randers-Pehrson. libpng version 1.2.5, 

http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/, November 2002. 3 

[19] JPEG version 6b, http://www.ijg.org/. 3
 

[20] Jean loup Gailly and Mark Adler. zlib version 1.1.4, http://zlib.net/, November 2002. 3 

[21] Paul Rademacher. GLUI version 2.1, http://www.cs.unc.edu/ rademach/glui/. 3
 

[22] Tomas Akenine-Moller and Eric Haines.	 Real-Time Rendering. A K Peters, Ltd., Natick, Massachusetts, 2nd edition, 2002. 7, 73
 

[23] D.A. Purser.	 SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering, chapter Toxicity Assessment of Combustion Products. National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, Massachusetts, 3rd edition, 2002. 

22
 

[24] Pamela P. Walatka and Pieter G. Buning.	 PLOT3D User’s Manual, version 3.5. NASA Technical
 

Memorandum 101067, NASA, 1989. 34
 

120
 
Part IV
 

Appendices
 

121
 

Appendix A 

Command Line Options 

Smokeview may be run from a command shell. Various command line options are available altering Smokeview’s startup behavior such as creating a configuration file, using stereo, using the demo mode or running 

a script. To obtain a list of command line options, type: 

smokeview -help 

without any arguments which results in output similar to: 

Smokeview 6.1.2 - Aug 13 2013 

Visualize fire/smoke flow simulations. 

Usage: smokeview [options] casenamewhere 

casename - project id (file names without the extension)
 

-bindir dir - specify location of smokeview bin directory
 

-build - show directives used in this build of Smokeview
 

-demo - use demonstrator mode of Smokeview
 

-fed - pre-calculate all FED slice files
 

-help - display this message
 

-ini - output default smokeview parameters to smokeview.ini
 

-ng_ini - No graphics version of -ini.
 

-runscript - run the script file casename.ssf
 

-script scriptfile - run the script file scriptfile
 

-skipframe n - render every n frames
 

-startframe n - start rendering at frame n
 

-stereo - activate stereo mode
 

-tempdir - forces output files to be written to the temporary directory
 

-update_bounds - calculate boundary file bounds and save to casename.bini
 

-version - display version information
 

-volrender - generate images of volume rendered smoke and fire
 

123
 
124
 
Appendix B
 

Menu Options
 

Smokeview’s menus are implemented using GLUT [15], the graphics library utility toolkit. The user interacts with Smokeview using 1) menus (right clicking with the mouse), 2) keyboard shortcuts and 3) the 

preference file (smokeview.ini or casename.ini). The main menu, illustrated in Fig. B.1 contains 

Load/Unload Show/Hide, Options, Dialogs, Help and Quit menu items. Several of these menu options 

have sub-menus. These menus are described in the following sections. 

B.1 Main 

Load/Unload This menu option allows one to load or unload data files generated by FDS or CFAST. 

This menu may also be used to load and create preference files .ini files that save the 

state of a Smokeview session. For more details see Appendix B.2. 

Show/Hide This menu option allows one to show or hide loaded data files and to change various scene 

attributes such as time/color bars, internal blockages, etc. More details are given in Appendix 

B.3. 

Options This menu allows one to specify various Smokeview options such as specifying frame rates, 

rendering the screen to a PNG or JPEG file, changing font sizes, selecting dialog boxes, etc. 

Dialogs This menu allows one to open/close various dialog boxes for setting data bounds, controlling 

the look of the 3D smoke, specifying clip planes, etc. 

Help This menu displays a list and explanation of keyboard equivalent commands and provides internet links to documentation and software updates. . 

B.2 Load/Unload 

The Load/Unload menu, illustrated in Fig. B.2, is used to load or unload data files generated by FDS or 

CFAST. File formats are described in the FDS User’s Guide [4]. A sub-menu is present under Load/Unload 

for each file type generated for the simulation. Selecting one of the files appearing in the sub-menu causes 

it to be loaded and then displayed. The data may be unloaded or freed by selecting an Unload menu item 

125
 
Figure B.1: Main Menu.
 

Figure B.2: Load/Unload Menu.
 

126
 
appearing under the file list. Selecting Unload All as expected will unload all files. To hide a data file, select 

the Show/Hide menu option corresponding to the file type to be hidden. 

The Smokeview .smv file contains information about all data files appearing in the Load/Unload menu 

item. The FDS field modeling software creates this file. (See Appendix D.4 for documentation on the format 

of this file). 

The character “*” occurring before a file name indicates that the file has already been loaded. If the file 

below is loaded but not visible, then use the appropriate Show/Hide option to make it visible. 

3D Smoke File (.s3d) This menu item allows one to load soot opacity and hrrpuv (heat release per 

unit volume) files. Smokeview uses the information contained in these files to visualize smoke 

realistically . 

Multi-Slice File (.sf) This menu item allows one to load all slices occurring in one plane (within a 

grid cell) simultaneously. It also gives the option to unload the currently loaded multi-slices. 

Multi-Vector Slice File (.sf) This menu item allows one to load all vector slices occurring in one 

plane (within a grid cell) simultaneously. It also gives the option to unload the currently loaded 

multi-slices. 

Slice File (.sf) This menu item gives the name and location of all available slice files and also the 

option to unload the currently loaded slice files. 

Vector Slice File (.sf) This menu item gives the name of all slice files that have one or more associated 

U, V and/or W velocity slice files. These slice files must be defined for the same region (or slice) 

in the simulation. 

Isosurface File (.iso) This menu item gives the name of all isosurface files and also the option to 

unload the currently loaded isosurface file. 

Boundary File (.bf) This menu item gives the name of all boundary files and also the option to unload 

the currently loaded boundary file. 

Particle File (.part) This menu item gives the name of all particle file and also the option to unload 

the currently loaded particle file. 

Plot3D File (.q) This menu item gives the name of all Plot3D files and also the option to unload the 

currently loaded Plot3D file. 

Configuration Files (.ini) The INI or preference file contains configuration parameters that may be 

used to customize Smokeview’s appearance and behavior. This menu item allows one to create 

(or overwrite) a preference file named either smokeview.ini or casename.ini. A preference file contains parameter settings for defining how Smokeview visualizes data. This file 

may be edited and re-read while Smokeview is running. 

Compression 3D smoke and boundary files may be compressed using this menu item. 

Script options Smokeview scripts may be recorded or run using this menu. 

Show File Names Load and Unload menus by default are specified using the location and type of visual 

to be displayed. This menu item adds file names to the Load and Unload menus. 

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Figure B.3: Show/Hide Menu.
 

Figure B.4: Geometry Menu. 

Reload	 This menu item allows one to reload files at immediately or at intervals of 1, 5 or 10 minutes. 

The u key may used to reload files from the keyboard. This is useful when using Smokeview to 

display a case that is currently running in FDS. 

Unload All This option causes all data files to be unloaded. 

B.3 Show/Hide 

The Show/Hide menu item as illustrated in Fig. B.3 allows one to show or hide various parts of the simulation. These menu items only appear if they pertain to the simulation. For example the Particles 

sub-menu only appears if a particle file has been loaded. Similarly, the Plot3D contouring submenus only appear if a Plot3D file has been loaded. The “ * ” character is used to indicate whether the 

visualization feature corresponding to the menu item is set or active. 

B.3.1 Geometry Options 

The Geometry menu is illustrated in Fig. B.4. The geometry menu contains sub-menus for controlling the 

visibility of obstacles, Smokeview objects, surfaces and the grid. 

128
 
Obstacles Obstacle sub-menus are divided into two groups. The first group allows the user to change 

how blockage appear (Defined in Input File, Normal, Outline, Hidden). 

The second group allows the user to change where blockages are located (actual or requested). The Actual sub-menu positions blockages as computed by FDS (along grid lines). 

The Requested sub-menu positions blockages at locations as specified in the input file. If the 

dx2dxf conversion program was used to convert a CAD drawing to input compatible with FDS 

and Smokeview then a third menu option appears, CAD. This option displays the Smokeview 

scene in a form similar to the original CAD drawing. 

Objects This option allows one to control the visibility of objects defined in the objects.svo file. 

Surfaces This option allows one to control the visibility of surfaces, either open vents or external surfaces. 

Grid This option allows one to visualize the grid used to perform the numerical calculations. One 

selects xy plane 

Hide All 

, xz plane or yz plane to visualize a single plane or Show All , 

to show or hide all grids. (Keyboard shortcut: g) 

Outline Show or hide the outline that frames the simulation scene. 

Show All Show all geometric features described above. 

Hide All Hide all geometric features described above. 

B.3.2 Labels 

The label menu, illustrated in Fig. B.5, allows one to toggle the visibility of various scene elements such as 

color bars, time bars, title, frame rate, etc. 

B.3.3 Data coloring 

The Data coloring menu is illustrated in Fig. B.6. This menu contains the following sub-menus . 

Colorbars A sub-menu which allows the user to choose and manipulate colorbars. 

Highlight extreme data This sub-menu allows one to color data above the specified maximum or below 

the specified minimum (extreme data) a different color. This color may be specified using the 

Edit colorbar dialog box. 

Shade Type This sub-menu allows one to change the way the colorbar is displayed between continuous, 

stepped (solid blocks of color) and line. 

Transparent Toggle contours between opaque and transparent. Transparent colors allow one to view the 

scene behind the contours giving the user a better sense of scale. Transparent colors, however, 

may make the scene look too confusing when the geometry is complex. 

B.3.4 Viewpoints 

Resets the simulation scene to an alternate view. The three choices are 1) exterior view, 2) interior view 

or a 3) user defined view. A viewpoint may be saved by using this menu or by using the Viewpoint 

129
 
Figure B.5: Label Menu.
 

Figure B.6: Data Coloring Menu.
 

130
 
sub-menu of the Options menu. If a time file is visible then two sub-menus occur allowing one to reset the 

view back to the original position or the time bar back to the initial time. 

B.3.5 Flip 

Flip the background color between a dark and light shade. A dark background shade looks better on a 

computer monitor while a light shade looks better on the printed page. 

B.3.6 Animated Surface 

This menu allows one to control the way isosurfaces are displayed. An isosurface is represented in Smokeview as a collection of triangles. Each triangle consists of three edges and three vertices. 

Solid Display the isosurface by shading the triangles. 

Outline Display the isosurface by only showing the triangle edges. 

Points Display the isosurface by only showing the triangle vertices. 

quantity levels Display the desired isosurface level (when more than one isosurface is stored in an isosurface file). 

Smooth Display the isosurface using smoothed vertex normals. 

B.3.7 Particles 

Smoke (tracer) Toggle the visibility of the particles. If water/sprinkler droplets are present in the particle file then sub-menus exist for both smoke and water to allow one to show or hide smoke and 

water droplets independently. 

Sprinkler Toggle the visibility of sprinkler (water droplets). 

B.3.8 Boundary 

Exterior Show or hide all data contained in a boundary (.bf) file pertaining to the exterior walls. 

Interior Show or hide all data contained in a boundary (.bf) file pertaining to interior blockages. 

Front, Back, Left, Right, Up, Down Toggle the visibility of whatever exterior boundary surface is selected. Note an exterior boundary menu option only appears if its data is present in the boundary 

file. 

B.3.9 Animated Vector Slice 

Toggle the visibility of the animated vector slice file. 

B.3.10 Animated Slice 

Toggle the visibility of the animated slice file. 

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B.3.11 Plot3D 

2D Contours 

Solution Variables A Plot3D data file contains five solution variables. If one or more of the velocity 

√

components denoted u, v and w are present in the Plot3D file then speed, calculated using 

u2 +v2 +w2, appears in the menu. Any velocity components missing from the Plot3D file 

are set to 0.0 when calculating speed. This menu item allows one to select the Plot3D solution 

variable to be visualized. (Keyboard shortcut: p) 

xy, xz, yz planes These three menu items, appearing beneath the Solution Variables menu item, allow 

one to select which plane (xy, xz or yz) is displayed. (Applicable keyboard shortcuts: space bar, 

-, left/right cursor, up/down cursor, page up/down, 1...9) 

Flow vectors Toggle visibility of flow vectors. The magnitude and direction of the vectors are determined by the U, V and W components of velocity. The vector color is determined by the 

solution variable selected. (Applicable keyboard shortcuts: a, s, v) 

Continuous Display contours as smooth continuous shades or as stepped constant shades. (Keyboard 

shortcut: c) 

Show All Show all three (xy, xz and yz) Plot3D planes at once. 

Hide All Hide all three Plot3D planes. 

Plot3D 3D Contours 

Solution Variables Same as for 2D contours. This menu item allows one to select the solution variable 

used to generate the 3D or iso-contour to be displayed. 

Solution Value Select the 3D contour level to display. The axis label shown in red corresponds to the 

3D contour level displayed. 

Block Size To increase the drawing speed, adjacent grid cells may be combined when viewing 3D contours. Selecting 1 will result in highly resolved contours but may take longer to draw. Selecting 

5 will have the opposite effect. 

Hide Hide the 3D contour. 

B.3.12 Textures 

Toggle the visibility of each or all textures. 

B.4 Options 

The option menu is illustrated in Fig. B.7. The sub-menus are detailed below. 

B.4.1 Units 

Select alternate temperature or velocity units. The UNIT keyword described in Appendix D.3 may be used 

to incorporate additional unit changes into Smokeview. 

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Figure B.7: Option Menu.
 

B.4.2 Rotation 

Eye Centered Rotate and move the scene relative to the observer’s eye. Eye centered views make it 

easier to move around within the scene itself as in modern computer games. (Keyboard shortcut: 

e. The “e” keyboard shortcut toggles the view between an eye centered and a world centered 

perspective.) 

World Centered Rotate and move the scene relative to the scene’s center. (Keyboard shortcut: e. 

The “e” keyboard shortcut toggles the view between an eye centered and a world centered 

perspective.) 

World Centered - Level Rotation	 As expected, this is the same as World Centered but with level 

rotations. 

B.4.3 Max Frame Rate 

This option controls the rate at which image frames are displayed. The sub-menus allow one to specify a 

maximum frame rate. The actual frame rate may be slower if the scene is complex and the graphics card is 

unable to draw the scene sufficiently fast. The unlimited menu item allows one to display frames as rapidly 

as the graphics hardware permits. The Real Time menu item allows one to draw frames so that the simulation 

time matches real time. The step menu item allows one to step through the simulation one time step at a time. 

This menu item may be used in concert with the Render menu item described below to create images at the 

desired time and view orientation for inclusion into reports. This is how figures were generated in this report. 

B.4.4 Render 

The Render menu, illustrated in Fig. B.8, allows one to create PNG or JPEG image files of the currently 

displayed scene. The graphics library, GD 2.0.15, was used to create the rendered versions. GD 1.0 is 

documented in reference [16, Appendix 4]. GD 2.0.7 now creates images using full color allowing for more 

realistic scene representations eliminating the color banding that occurred with the previous version because 

of the limited number (256) of colors used to represent images. Due to patent disputes, GD 2.0.15 has 

dropped support for the GIF file format and uses JPEG or PNG instead. 

The Render sub-menus allow one to specify an integer between 1 and 20 indicating the number of 

frames between rendered images. This allows one to generate images encompassing the entire time duration 

133
 
Figure B.8: Render Menu.
 

134
 
Figure B.9: Tour Menu. 

of the simulation which in turn can be converted into movie files (mpeg, mov, avi, etc) using software 

available on the internet. Rendering may be stopped by selecting Cancel .
 

The keyboard shortcut for the render option is r.
 

B.4.5 Tours 

The Tour menu illustrated in Fig. B.9 allows one to show and hide available tours. 

Manual This menu item turns touring off, allowing the user to control the scene with the mouse.
 

Default This menu item activates the original tour used in previous versions of Smokeview.
 

List of tours Each tour defined in the .ini file is listed under the Tour menu. A circular tour is defined
 

automatically by Smokeview. 

B.4.6 Font Size 

This option allows one to display text in either a normal or a large font. 

B.5 Dialogs 

The Dialogs menu, illustrated in Fig. B.10, allows one to select dialog boxes for setting various Smokeview 

features. 

Clip Geometry Open the dialog box for clipping the geometry allowing one to see past exterior portions 

of the scene. 

Compression/Smokezip Dialog box for compressing the FDS case being visualized using the external 

program Smokezip. 

Customize colorbars Dialog box for creating new and editing existing colorbars. 

135
 
Figure B.10: Dialogs Menu. 

Device/Objects Dialog box for scaling Smokeview objects and showing data values associated with 

FDS devices. 

Display Dialog box for setting various parameters that control how the Smokeview scene appears. 

Examine blockages Dialog box for examining FDS blockages. 

File/Bound/Script Settings Dialog box for specifying data bounds. 

Motion/View/Render Dialog box for controlling scene movement. To use the movement arrows, click 

and hold the mouse in one of the arrows then move the mouse to achieve the desired movement. 

Particle tracking Dialog box for releasing and viewing particles within the scene. 

3D smoke Dialog box for specifying controlling the look of the 3D smoke. 

Stereo parameters Provides stereo 3-D output on systems equipped with supported video cards. Stereo 

3-D requires a computer graphics card, monitor, software drivers and shuttered glasses. This 

option only appears if Smokeview is started from the command line using the -stereo command line option and if a video card supporting quad buffering (left and right front buffer, and 

left and right back buffer) is supported. 

Tours Dialog box for creating new tours and editing existing ones. 

136
 
Appendix C 

Keyboard Shortcuts 

Many menu commands have equivalent keyboard shortcuts. These shortcuts are described here and are also 

briefly described under the Help menu item from within Smokeview. 

C.1 alphanumeric shortcuts 

a Lengthen slice and PLOT3D vector lengths (use ALT a to shorten vector lengths). 

a When in eye centered movement mode, slide to the left. 

A Toggle axis label smoothing on and off. 

b Toggle visibility of boundary files 

B Switch between visibility of vents/blockages and boundary files. 

c Toggle 2D contour display between banded, continuously shaded and line contours. 

C Toggle 3D smoke culling. 

c Advance highlighted zone fire modeling compartment. 

C Toggle zone fire modeling compartment highlighting. 

d,D Slide right when in eye centered movement mode. 

e,E Toggle how the scene is manipulated. In eye view scene motion is relative to the observer. In 

world view scene motion is relative to the scene center. 

F Toggle algorithm for hiding blockage overlaps. 

g Toggle the grid visibility. When the grid display option is active, the x, y and z keys may be 

used to show or hide the grid perpendicular to the x, y and z axes respectively. 

G Toggle the use of the GPU (if present). 

h Toggle window indentation, for use with window capturing. 

H Toggle the visibility of slice and vector slice files. 

i,I Toggle Plot3D iso-contour visibility. 

k,K Toggle time bar visibility. 

L Unload most recently loaded slice file. 

m,M Switch between meshes in multiple mesh cases. 

o Switch between outline viewing modes. The modes are 

137
 
1. outline of the current mesh 

2. outline of the entire case 

3. no outline 

This option may be used with the m key to highlight all meshes in sequence of a case. 

O	 Toggle the blockage view state between 1) defined in input file and 2) outline only 

p	 Show the next variable in a Plot3D data set. 

P	 The cursor keys and the page up/down keys are needed to both move grid and Plot3D planes 

around the scene and to move through the scene while in eye centered mode. The upper case “P“ 

key is then used to switch the way these keys are used between grid/Plot3D movement mode 

and scene movement mode. 

q,Q	 Switch between blockage views. These views are blocks that are aligned on grid lines, blocks 

as specified by the user (in the FDS input file) and blocks as generated by a CAD (computer 

aided drawing) package. 

r,R	 Render the current scene as a JPEG or a PNG file which can be viewed in a web browser or 

inserted into a word processing document. If the upper case R key is selected then the scene is 

rendered in with double the screen resolution. 

s	 Increment the number of vectors skipped. This is useful for making vector displays more readable when grids are finely meshed. 

s Move backwards when in eye centered movement mode. 

S Change stereo modes (left/right, red/blue, none, etc.) 

t Toggle the time stepping mode. Time stepping mode allows one to step through the simulation 

one time step at a time. 

T Toggle the method for interpolating colors when drawing slice and boundary files. 

u,U Reload files from the keyboard. This is useful when using Smokeview to display a case that is 

currently running in FDS. 

v Toggle vector visibility. This option is only active when there are U, V and/or W velocity 

components present in the Plot3D data set. 

V Toggle visibility of volume rendered smoke. 

w Toggle visibility of 3D node centered general slice. 

w,W Move forwards when in eye centered movement mode. 

x,X y,Y, z,Z Toggle the visibility of the Plot3D data planes perpendicular to the x, y and z axes 

respectively (parallel to the yz, xz and xy planes). 

0 Reset a time dependent animation to the initial time. 

1-9 Number of frames to skip when viewing an animation. 

C.2 ALT shortcuts 

ALT a Shorten slice and PLOT3D vector lengths (use ’a’ to lengthen vector lengths). 

ALT c Open the Clipping dialog box. 

138
 
ALT d Open the Display dialog box.
 

ALT e Open the Blockage info dialog box.
 

ALT f Open the File/Bounds dialog box.
 

ALT m Open the Motion/View/Render dialog box.
 

ALT o Switch between various blockage view states. States are: 1) defined in input file, 2) defined
 

in input file + outline, 3) solid, 4) outline only and 5) hidden 

ALT r Toggle research mode (research mode uses global min and max for coloring data and turns 

off axis label smoothing when displaying it.) 

ALT s Open the 3D Smoke dialog box. 

ALT t Open the Edit Tours dialog box. 

ALT u Toggle the option to draw a coarse portion of a 2D slice file within an embedded mesh. 

ALT v Toggle the projection method used to visualize a scene. The two projection methods are size 

preserving and perspective. 

ALT w Open the WUI dialog box 

ALT x Close all dialog boxes. 

ALT z Open the Compress Files portion of the File/Bounds dialog box. 

C.3 Special character short cuts 

 ̃ Level scene.
 

! Snap scene to nearest 45 degree rotation angle.
 

@ Toggle display of FDS values (as floating point numbers) when viewing vector centered slice
 

files. 

# Save configuration settings to the casename.ini file. 

% Toggle single stepping mode. If activated, Smokeview will execute a script one command at a 

time. 

ˆ When single stepping mode is activated, this key causes the next script command to be executed. 

$ Toggle trainer or demonstrator mode. When active, displays a dialog box that provides a simple 

set of controls for controlling the scene. 

& Toggle line anti-aliasing. When active, this option draws line smoothly without jaggies. 

* Hide all 3D slice planes (aligned with 3 coordinate axes and general slice planes). 

( Toggle render clipping mode 

[ Turn on tour editing 

] Turn off tour editing 

Left/Right Cursor When the eyeview mode is eye centered then these keys rotate the scene to the left or 

right otherwise they increment/decrement the Plot3D plane location displayed in the xz plane. 

Up/Down Cursor Increment/decrement the Plot3D plane location displayed in the yz plane. 

Page Up, Page Down Increment/decrement the Plot3D plane location displayed in the xy plane. 

139
 
- Decrement Plot3D data planes, Plot3D iso-contour levels or time step displayed.
 

space bar Increment Plot3D data planes, Plot3D iso-contour levels or time step displayed.
 

140
 
Appendix D 

File Formats and Extensions 

D.1 FDS and Smokeview File Extensions 

D.1.1 FDS file extensions 

.bf File containing boundary file data.
 

.end File containing Endian information.
 

.fds File containing the FDS input file.
 

.iso File containing iso-surface data
 

.out File containing FDS output.
 

.prt File containing particle file data using FDS 4 and earlier.
 

.prt5 File containing particle file data using FDS 5 and later.
 

.q File containing Plot3D data.
 

.sf File containing slice file data.
 

.s3d File containing 3D smoke, HRRPUV data.
 

D.1.2 Smokeview file extensions 

.bini File containing percentile and global data bounds for boundary files in referenced casename.smv.
 

.ini File containing Smokeview configuration settings.
 

.smv File containing Smokeview keyword data.
 

.ssf File containing a Smokeview script.
 

.svz File containing compressed boundary, slice or 3D smoke/fire data. The .svz extension is appended to the .bf, .sf or .s3d extension respectively. 

.sz File containing sizing information for uncompressed data files. The .sz files contain information 

about each data frame used by Smokeview to allocate memory. 

.szz File containing sizing information for compressed .svz files (files compressed with Smokezip 

with a .svz extension). 

141
 
D.2 Smokeview Bound File Format (.bini files) 

The first time a user views a boundary file, Smokeview computes data bounds by inputting all boundary file 

data of the same type. Smokeview records the bound computations result in a casename.bini file so that it 

does not need to be performed a second time. The .bini file is then used in subsequent Smokeview sessions 

for displaying boundary file data. The .bini file contains one or more B_BOUNDARY keywords . 

B_BOUNDARY defines the global minimum and maximum and percentile minimum and maximum 

boundary data bounds used to convert boundary data values to color indices. The B_BOUNDARY keyword 

also has a parameter allowing one to specify the data type. The format is given by 

B_BOUNDARY 

global_min percentile_min percentile_max global_max data_type 

D.3 Smokeview Preference File Format (.ini files) 

Smokeview uses preference files to set input parameters not settable by using menus or the keyboard and 

to save the state of a visualization. Smokeview looks for preference files in three locations in the following 

order: 

1. a file named smokeview.ini in a global directory defined by the SMOKEVIEWINI environment
 

variable. On the PC, the directory C:\Program Files\ FDS\FDS5\bin\smokeview.ini is
 

the default location for this preference file. The SMOKEVIEWINI environment variable may be defined
 

on the PC to specify the location of the smokeview.ini file. This step is performed automatically by the
 

Smokeview installation program.
 

This environment variable may be defined on a UNIX workstation by adding the line: 

setenv SMOKEVIEWINI dir 

to a .login or .cshrc start up file again where dir is the directory containing the global preference
 

file. Changes to this smokeview.ini file apply to all cases visualized on the computer unless
 

overridden by preference files named or located in directories named in steps 2. and 3.
 

2. a file named smokeview.ini in the directory containing the case being visualized. Changes to this
 

smokeview.ini file apply to all cases in the current directory unless overridden by the casename.ini
 

file contained in this directory.
 

3. a file named casename.ini in the directory containing the case being visualized where casename is
 

the name of the case.
 

The smokeview.ini file may be created by typing: 

smokeview -ini 

from the command line or by selecting the smokeview.ini menu item. The casename.ini preference file can be created via the menus or by copying a previously created smokeview.ini file. 

Smokeview reads the global smokeview.ini file first (step 1. above), followed by the local smokeview.ini 

file (step 2. above), followed by the casename.ini file. The global smokeview.ini file is used to 

142
 
customize parameters for all Smokeview runs. The local smokeview.ini file is used to customize parameters for just those Smokeview runs contained in the local directory. The casename.ini file is used 

to customize parameters for only those Smokeview runs with the prefix casename. 

All preference file parameters unless otherwise noted consist of a KEYWORD followed by a value, as in: 

KEYWORD 

value 

D.3.1 Color parameters 

All colors are specified using a 3-tuple: r g b where r, g and b are the red, green and blue components of the 

color respectively. Each color component is a floating point number ranging from 0.0 to 1.0 where 0.0 is the 

darkest shade and 1.0 is the lightest shade. For example the 3-tuple 1.0 0.0 0.0 is bright red, 0.0 0.0 0.0 is 

black and 1.0 1.0 1.0 is white. 

AMBIENTLIGHT Sets the color used for specifying ambient light. (default: 0.6 0.6 0.6) 

BACKGROUNDCOLOR Sets the color used to visualize the scene background. (default: 0.0 0.0 

0.0) 

BLOCKCOLOR Sets the color used to visualize internal blockages. (default: 1.0 0.8 4.0) 

BOUNDCOLOR Sets the color used to visualize floors, walls and ceilings. (default: 0.5 0.5 0.2) 

COLORBAR Entries for the color palette in RGB (red, green, blue) format where each color component ranges from 0.0 to 1.0 . The default values (rounded to 2 digits) are specified with: 

COLORBAR
 

12
 

0.00 0.00 1.00 

0.00 0.28 0.96 

0.00 0.54 0.84 

0.00 0.76 0.65 

0.00 0.91 0.41 

0.00 0.99 0.14 

0.14 0.99 0.00 

0.41 0.91 0.00 

0.65 0.76 0.00 

0.84 0.54 0.00 

0.96 0.28 0.00 

1.00 0.00 0.00 

COLOR2BAR Miscellaneous colors used by Smokeview. The default values are specified using: 

COLOR2BAR
 

8
 

1.0 1.0 1.0 :white 

1.0 1.0 0.0 :yellow 

0.0 0.0 1.0 :blue 

1.0 0.0 0.0 :red 

0.0 1.0 0.0 :green 

1.0 0.0 1.0 :magenta 

0.0 1.0 1.0 :cyan 

0.0 0.0 0.0 :black 

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where the 8 indicates the number of colors defined and the character string after the “:” are 

ignored. 

COLORBAND The data is displayed using 256 levels. The colorbar consists of one color for each 

level. The COLORBAND parameter specifies the width of the black region on the colorbar 

highlighted when selected by the left mouse button. Currently the colorband width may be 

either 1 level or 10. (default: 10) 

COLORBARFLIP Specifies whether the colorbar is flipped (1) or not flipped (0) (default: 0). 

DIFFUSELIGHT Sets the color for specifying diffuse light (default: 0.5 0.5 0.5). 

FLIP	 Specifies whether to flip (1) or not to flip (0) the foreground and background colors. By default 

the background color is black and the foreground color is white. Setting FLIP to 1 has the effect 

of having a white background and black foreground. (default: 0). 

FOREGROUNDCOLOR Sets the color used to visualize the scene foreground (such as text labels). 

(default: 1.0 1.0 1.0) 

HEATOFFCOLOR Sets the color used to visualize heat detectors before they activate. (default: 1.0 

0.0 0.0) 

HEATONCOLOR Sets the color used to visualize heat detectors after they activate. (default: 0.0 

1.0 0.0) 

ISOCOLORS Colors and parameters used to display animated isocontours. Default: 

ISOCOLORS
 

10.000000 0.800000 : shininess, transparency
 

0.700000 0.700000 0.700000 : specular
 

3
 

0.960000 0.280000 0.000000
 

0.750000 0.800000 0.800000
 

0.000000 0.960000 0.280000
 

SENSORCOLOR Sets the color used to visualize sensors. (default: 1.0 1.0 0.0) 

SETBW The parameter used to set whether color shades (0) or shades of gray (1) are to used for coloring 

contours and blockages. (default: 0) 

SPRINKOFFCOLOR Sets the color used to visualize sprinklers before they activate. (default: 1.0 

0.0 0.0) 

SPRINKONCOLOR Sets the color used to visualize sprinklers after they activate. (default: 0.0 1.0 

0.0) 

STATICPARTCOLOR Sets the color used to visualize static particles (particles displayed in frame 0). 

(default: 0.0 1.0 0.0). 

TIMEBARCOLOR Sets the color used to visualize the timebar. (default: 0.6 0.6 0.6) 

VENTCOLOR Sets the color used to visualize vents. (default: 1.0 0.0 1.0) 

D.3.2 Size parameters 

The parameters described in this section allow one to customize the size of various Smokeview scene elements. 

144
 
ISOLINEWIDTH Defines the width in pixels of lines used to draw animated iso-surfaces in outline 

mode. (default: 2.0) 

ISOPOINTSIZE Defines the size in pixels of iso-surface particles. (default: 4.0) 

LINEWIDTH Defines the width of lines1 in pixels. (default: 2.0) 

PARTPOINTSIZE Defines the size in pixels of smoke or tracer particles. (default: 1.0) 

PLOT3DLINEWIDTH Defines the width in pixels of lines used to draw Plot3D iso-surfaces in outline 

mode. (default: 2.0) 

PLOT3DPOINTSIZE Defines the size in pixels of Plot3D iso-surface particles. (default: 4.0) 

SENSORABSSIZE Defines the sensor size drawn by Smokeview using the same units as used to specify the grid coordinates. (default: 0.038) 

SLICEOFFSET Defines an offset distance2 animated slices are drawn from adjacent solid surfaces. 

(default: 0.10) 

SMOOTHLINES Specifies whether lines should be drawn (1) or not drawn (0) using anti-aliasing 

(default: 1). 

SPRINKLERABSSIZE Defines the sprinkler size drawn by Smokeview using the same units as used 

to specify the grid coordinates. (default: 0.076) 

STREAKLINEWIDTH Defines the width of a streak line. (default: 1.0) 

VECTORLENGTH Defines the length of Plot3D vectors. A vector length of 1.0 fills one grid cell. 

Vector lengths may also be changed from within Smokeview by depressing the “a” key. (default: 4.0) 

VECTORPOINTSIZE Defines the size in pixels of the point that is drawn at the end of a Plot3D 

vector. (default: 3.0) 

VENTLINEWIDTH Defines the width of lines used to draw vents in pixels. (default: 2.0) 

VENTOFFSET Defines a distance used to offset vents drawn from adjacent surfaces. (default: 0.10 

(units of fraction of a grid cell width)) 

WINDOWHEIGHT Defines the initial window height in pixels. (default: 480) 

WINDOWWIDTH Defines the initial window width in pixels. (default: 640) 

WINDOWOFFSET Defines a margin offset around the Smokeview scene for use when capturing images to video. (default: 45) 

D.3.3 Time, Chop and value bound parameters 

This section describes parameters used by Smokeview to 1) modify the time intervals used to load data 

(keywords beginning with T_ ), 2) eliminate or chop data from being displayed (beginning with C_) and 

3) override the minimum and maximum data values (keywords beginning with V_) used to convert data to 

color values. By default, Smokeview reads in data for all time values and does not override minimum and 

maximum data values. Each time and data bound keyword (except for V_PLOT3D) has the format: 

KEYWORD 

minflag minvalue maxflag maxvalue 

1Except lines used to draw vents 

2distance is relative to the maximum grid cell width 

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where minflag can be either 0 or 1. If it is 1 then, the subsequent number, minvalue is used by Smokeview to scale the data otherwise if minflag is 0 then minvalue is ignored. The next two parameters 

maxflag and maxvalue are defined similarly. The V_PLOT3D keyword contains data bound entries for 

each variable in the Plot3D data file. If a Plot3D speed variable was constructed by Smokeview then the 

V_PLOT3D keyword will contain six entries instead of five. 

C_PARTICLES Defines the minimum and maximum values used to discard particle data in a visualization. To drop particle data below 70◦C and above 200◦C use: 

C_PARTICLES 1 70. 1 200. 

C_PLOT3D Defines the minimum and maximum data values used to drop or chop Plot3D. To cause 

Smokeview to set the minimum and maximum chop values for the first Plot3D quantity (usually 

temperature) to 100 and 300 use: 

C_PLOT3D 5
 

1 1 100.0 1 300.0
 

2 0 1.0 0 0.0 

3 0 1.0 0 0.0 

4 0 1.0 0 0.0 

5 0 1.0 0 0.0 

The integer “1” occurring before the “100” or “300” causes Smokeview to use the next number 

as a minimum or maximum chop value respectively. 

C_SLICE Defines the minimum and maximum values used to discard slice file data in a visualization. 

To drop slice data below 70◦C and above 200◦C use: 

C_SLICE 1 70. 1 200. 

T_BOUNDARY Defines the minimum and maximum times used to include boundary frames in a visualization. To load boundary data between 20 and 150 seconds use: 

T_BOUNDARY 

1 20. 1 150. 

(default: 0 1.0 0 0.0) 

T_ISO	 Defines the minimum and maximum times used to include isosurface frames in a visualization. 

To load isosurface data between 20 and 150 seconds use: 

T_ISO 

1 20. 1 150. 

T_PARTICLES Defines the minimum and maximum times used to include particles in a visualization. 

To load particle data between 20 and 150 seconds use: 

T_PARTICLES 

1 20. 1 150. 

T_SLICE Defines the minimum and maximum times used to include slice frames in a visualization. To 

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load slice data between 20 and 150 seconds use:
 

T_SLICE 

1 20. 1 150. 

(default: 0 1.0 0 0.0) 

V_BOUNDARY Defines the minimum and maximum data bounds used to convert boundary data values 

to color indices. (default: 0 1.0 0 0.0) 

The V_BOUNDARY keyword has an optional parameter allowing one to specify to which 

type of data the bounds should apply. For example, to specify boundary file bounds for temperature (30.0 ◦C, 600.0 ◦C) use: 

V_BOUNDARY
 

1 30.000000 1 600.000000 TEMP
 

where TEMP is the Smokeview colorbar labels displayed when showing the boundary file. 

These suffixes are added automatically when the File Bounds dialog box is used to set data 

bounds. 

V_PARTICLES Defines the minimum and maximum data bounds used to convert particle data values 

to color indices. (default: 0 1.0 0 0.0) 

V_PLOT3D Defines the minimum and maximum data bounds used to convert Plot3D data values to 

color indices. The default values are given by: 

V_PLOT3D
 

5
 

1 0 1.0 0 0.0 

2 0 1.0 0 0.0 

3 0 1.0 0 0.0 

4 0 1.0 0 0.0 

5 0 1.0 0 0.0 

where the initial 5 indicates the number of subsequent entries, the first integer on each line 

indicates the Plot3D data variable being specified and all other parameters on each line are 

defined as above. 

To cause Smokeview to set the minimum and maximum data values to for the first quantity 

(usually temperature) to 20 and 600 use: 

V_PLOT3D
 

5
 

1 1 20.0 1 600.0
 

2 0 1.0 0 0.0 

3 0 1.0 0 0.0 

4 0 1.0 0 0.0 

5 0 1.0 0 0.0 

The integer “1” occurring before the “20” or “600” causes Smokeview to use the next number 

as a minimum or maximum value respectively otherwise if “0” is specified then Smokeview 

ignores the subsequent min/max value. 

In addition to 0 and 1, the V_PLOT3D keyword may use 2 as a bound indicator. In the 

above example, if 2 rather than 1 is used to define Plot3D bounds, then Smokeview does not 

147
 
draw contour3 levels smaller than 20 or contours greater than 600. The Plot3D bound line 1 

2 360.0 1 420.0 indicates that temperatures below 360 ◦C are not drawn and that temperatures above 420 ◦C are drawn with the highest color (black in black and white mode, red in 

color mode). This bound line could also be implemented with the File/Bounds dialog box as 

illustrated in Fig. 6.1 resulting in a contour plot as illustrated in Fig. 6.3. 

V_SLICE Defines the minimum and maximum data bounds used to convert slice data values to color 

indices. (default: 0 1.0 0 0.0) 

The V_SLICE keyword has an optional parameter allowing one to specify to which type of 

data the bounds should apply. For example, to specify separate slice file bounds for temperature 

(30.0 ◦C, 600.0 ◦C) and the U component of velocity (-1.0 m/s and 1.0 m/s) use: 

V_SLICE
 

1 30.000000 1 600.000000 TEMP
 

V_SLICE
 

1 -1.0 1 1.0 U-VEL
 

where TEMP and U-VEL are the Smokeview colorbar labels displayed when showing the slice 

file. 

These suffixes are added automatically when the File/Bounds dialog box is used to set data 

bounds. 

D.3.4 Data loading parameters 

The keywords in this section may be used to reduce the memory required to visualize FDS data. Keywords 

exist for limiting particles and frames. Other keywords exist for compressing particle data and skipping 

particles and frames. 

BOUNDFRAMESTEP Defines the number of intervals or steps between loaded boundary file frames. 

(default: 1) 

EVACFRAMESTEP Specifies the interval or steps between loaded evacuation frames. An evacuation frame consists of all the people loaded at one particular time step. For example, if 

EVACFRAMESTEP is set to 3 then every 3rd evacuation frame is read in. (default: 1) 

ISOFRAMESTEP Defines the number of intervals or steps between loaded isosurface file frames (default: 1) 

ISOZIPSTEP Defines the number of intervals or steps between isosurface file frames when compressed 

by Smokezip. (default: 1) 

MAXFRAMES Specifies the maximum number of particle frames that can be read in. (default: 501) 

MAXPOINTS Specifies the maximum number of particle points that can be read in from a particle file. 

(default: 5000000) 

NOPART Indicates that a particle file should not (1) or should (0) be loaded when Smokeview starts 

up. This option is used when one wants to look at other files besides the particle file. (default: 

1) 

PARTFRAMESTEP Specifies the interval or steps between loaded particle frames. A particle frame 

is all the particles loaded at one particular time step. For example, if PARTFRAMESTEP is set 

3This is true for stepped or discrete contours. If continuous contours are drawn, then “2” and “1” have the same effect. 

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to 3 then every 3rd particle frame is read in. This and the PARTPOINTSTEP options may be 

used together to dramatically reduce the memory required to view particle files. These options 

should be used when displaying Smokeview files on computers with limited memory. (default: 

1) 

PARTPOINTCOMPRESS Specifies how Smokeview stores particle data. Each particle is represented 

using three position coordinates and one data value. Using full precision (PARTPOINTCOMPRESS 

value of 0), Smokeview uses four bytes per position coordinate and one byte for the data value 

or 13 bytes to represent each particle point. If this keyword is set to 1 then Smokeview uses one 

byte per position coordinate and one byte for the data value or 4 bytes per particle point. Finally 

if this keyword has value 2 then 2 bytes are used to store each position coordinate and one byte 

for the data value or 7 bytes per particle point. The recommended value is 2. Using 0 results 

in almost twice the memory usage without any extra precision in positioning particles. Using 

1, though using less memory than the “2” option, results in granularity effects when displaying 

particles which the user may find annoying. (default: 2) 

PARTPOINTSTEP Specifies the interval or steps between loaded particle points. For example, if 

PARTPOINTSTEP is set to 5 then every 5th particle or only 20 per cent of the particle file is 

read in. (default: 1) 

SCRIPTFILE Specifies the name of a script file either created by hand or created automatically by 

Smokeview using the script recorder. 

SLICEFRAMESTEP Specifies the number of intervals or steps between loaded slice file frames. (default: 1) 

SLICEZIPSTEP Specifies the number of intervals or steps between slice frames when compressed by 

Smokezip. (default: 1) 

SMOKE3DFRAMESTEP Specifies the number of interval or steps between loaded 3D smoke file 

frames. (default: 1) 

SMOKE3DZIPSTEPxxx 

SLICEDATAOUT When set to 1 will output data corresponding to any loaded slice files whenever the 

scene is rendered. 

D.3.5 Viewing parameters 

The keywords in this section define how a scene is viewed. Keywords exist for showing or hiding various 

scene elements and for modifying how various scene elements appear. 

APERTURE Specifies the viewing angle used to display a Smokeview scene. Viewing angles of 30, 

45, 60, 75 and 90 degrees are displayed when APERTURE has the value of 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 

respectively. (default: 2) 

AXISSMOOTH Specifies whether axis numerical labels should be smoothed (AXISSMOOTH set 

to 1) or not smoothed (AXISSMOOTH set to 0). (default: 1) 

BLOCKLOCATION Specifies the location or method used to draw blockages. Blockages are drawn 

either snapped to the nearest grid (5), drawn at locations as specified in the FDS input file (6) 

or drawn as specified in a compatible CAD package (7)4. (default: 5) 

4There are various third party tools that have been developed to help process obstruction data for FDS. See the FDS/Smokeview 

website, http://fire.nist.gov/fds/, for details. 

149
 
CLIP	 Specifies the near and far clipping plane locations. Dimensions are relative to the longest side 

of an FDS scene. (default: 0.001 3.000) 

COLORBAND Specifies the width in pixels of the black colorband created when the colorbar is selected by the mouse. (default: 1) 

COMPRESSAUTO Specifies that files that are to be auto-loaded by Smokeview (and no other files) 

should be compressed by Smokezip. 

CULLFACES Hide (1) or show (0) the back side of various surfaces. 

EYEVIEW Specifies whether the scene should be rotated relative to the observer (EYEVIEW set to 1) 

or the scene center (EYEVIEW=0). (default: 0) 

EYEX, EYEY, EYEZ The parameters EYEX, EYEY, EYEZ specify the x, y and z location respectively of the viewing origin (where your eyes are). (default: 0.5 -0.9 1.5) 

FONTSIZE Specifies whether small (0) or large (1) fonts should be used to display text labels. (default: 

0) 

FRAMERATEVALUE Specifies the maximum rate (frames per second) that Smokeview should display frames. This value is an upper bound. Smokeview will not display frames faster than this 

rate but may display frames at a slower rate if the scene to be visualized is complex. (default: 

1000000 (essentially unlimited)) 

ISOTRANS Specifies transparency state for iso-surfaces. The choices are all iso-surface levels transparent (ALL_TRANSPARENT=1), minimum iso-surface level solid (MIN_SOLID=2), maximum 

iso-surface level solid (MAX_SOLID=3) and all iso-surface levels transparent (ALL_TRANSPARENT=4) 

(default: 3) 

MSCALE Specifies how dimensions along the X, Y and/or Z axes should be scaled. (default: 1.0 1.0 

1.0) 

PROJECTION Specifies whether a perspective (0) or orthographic (1) projection is used to draw 

Smokeview scenes. (default: 0) 

P3CONT2D The parameter P3CONT2D may be set to 0, 1 or 2. If P3CONT2D is set to 0 then Plot3D 

color contours are drawn by coloring each node and letting OpenGL interpolate colors between nodes. If P3CONT2D is set to 1 then discrete or stepped shaded contours are drawn. If 

P3CONT2D is set to 2 then contour lines are drawn. (default: 1) 

P3DSURFACETYPE Specifies how Plot3D isosurfaces should be drawn. If P3DSURFACETYPE is 

set to 1 then Plot3D isosurfaces are drawn using shaded triangles. If P3DSURFACETYPE is 

set to 2 or 3 then Plot3D isosurfaces are drawn using triangle outlines and points respectively. 

(default: 1) 

P3DSURFACESMOOTH When drawing Plot3D isosurfaces using shaded triangles, this option specifies whether the vertex normals should be averaged (P3DSURFACESMOOTH set to 1) resulting in smooth isosurfaces or not averaged resulting in isosurfaces that have sharp edges 

(P3DSURFACESMOOTH set to 0). (default: 1) 

RENDERFILETYPE Specifies whether PNG (RENDERFILETYPE set to 0) or JPEG (RENDERFILETYPE set to 1) should be used to render images. (default: 1) 

RENDEROPTION Records the option used to render images. 

SBATSTART Specifies that if smooth blockages are present in a simulation that they should be smoothed 

when Smokeview starts up. 

150
 
SENSORRELSIZE Specifies a scaling factor that is applied when drawing all sensors. (default: 1.0) 

SHOWAXISLABELS Specifies whether axis labels should be drawn (1) or not drawn (0) drawn. (default: 0) 

SHOWBLOCKLABEL Specifies whether a label identifying the active mesh should be drawn (1) or 

not drawn (0). (default: 1) 

SHOWBLOCKS Specifies how a blockage should be drawn. A value of 0, 1 or 2 indicates that the 

blockages are invisible, drawn normally or drawn as outlines respectively. (default: 1) 

SHOWCADANDGRID 

SHOWCEILING Specifies whether the ceiling (upper bounding surface) should be drawn (1) or not 

drawn (0). (default: 0) 

SHOWCOLORBARS Specifies whether the color bars should be drawn (1) or not drawn (0). (default: 

1) 

SHOWEXTREMEDATA Specifies whether data exceeding the maximum colorbar label value or less 

than the minimum colorbar label value should be colored with a different color (black). If 

SHOWEXTREMEDATA is set to 1 then extreme data is colored black, if SHOWEXTREMEDATA is set to 0 then extreme data is colored as indicated by the maximum and minimum region 

of the colorbar. (default: 0). . 

SHOWFLOOR Specifies whether the floor (lower bounding surface) should be drawn (1) or not drawn 

(0). (default: 1) 

SHOWFRAME Specifies whether the frame surrounding the scene should be drawn (1) or not drawn 

(0). (default: 1) 

SHOWFRAMELABEL Specifies whether the frame number should be drawn (1) or not drawn (0). 

(default: 1) 

SHOWFRAMERATE Specifies whether the frame rate label should be drawn (1) or not drawn (0). 

(default: 0) 

SHOWGRIDLOC Specifies where grid location should be drawn (1) or not drawn (0). (default: 0) 

SHOWHRRCUTOFF Specifies whether the HRRPUV cutoff label should be (1) or should not be (0) 

displayed. (default: 0) 

SHOWISO Specifies how an isosurface should be drawn: hidden (0), solid (1), outline (2) or with 

points (3). (default: 1) 

SHOWISONORMALS Specifies whether iso-surface normals are drawn (1) or not drawn (0). (default: 

0) 

SHOWIGNITION When drawing a temperature boundary file, this option specifies whether ignited 

materials (regions exceeding the materials ignition temperature) should be drawn (1) or not 

drawn (0). A second parameter specifies whether only the ignited regions should be drawn (1) 

or both the ignited regions and other regions should be drawn (0). (default: 0 0) 

SHOWLABELS Specifies whether labels should be drawn (1) or not drawn (0). Labels are specified 

using the LABEL keyword described in subsection 15. (default: 0) 

SHOWMEMLOAD Specifies (when run on a PC) whether a label giving the memory used should be 

drawn (1) or not drawn (0). (default: 0) 

SHOWNORMALWHENSMOOTH Specifies that smooth blocks should be drawn as normal blocks 

(1) or drawn as smooth blocks (0). (default: 0) 

151
 
SHOWOPENVENTS Specifies that open vents should be drawn (1) or not drawn (0). (default: 0) 

SHOWDUMMYVENTS Specifies that dummy vents (vents created by FDS) should be drawn (1) or 

not drawn (0). (default: 0) 

SHOWSENSORS Specifies whether sensors should be drawn (1) or not drawn (0). A second parameter 

specifies whether the sensor’s orientation or normal vector should be drawn (1) or not drawn 

(0). (default: 1 0). 

SHOWSLICEINOBST Specifies whether a slice file should be drawn (1) inside a blockage or not 

drawn (0) inside a blockage. Normally a slice file is not drawn inside a blockage but one would 

want to draw a slice file inside a blockage if the blockage disappears over the duration of a run. 

(default: 0). 

SHOWSMOKEPART Specifies whether smoke or trace particles should be drawn (1) or not drawn 

(0). (default: 1) 

SHOWSPRINKPART Specifies whether sprinkler droplet particles (if present in the particle file) should 

be drawn (1) or not drawn (0). (default: 1) 

SHOWSTREAK Specify parameters that define streak properties. This keyword has four integer parameters with format: 

SHOWSTREAK
 

streak5show,streak5step,showstreakhead,streakindex
 

The streak5show parameter may be 0 or 1 and indicates whether a streak is not (0) or is (1) 

shown. The streak5step parameter indicates number of streaks skipped or not displayed. 

The showstreakhead parameter may be 0 or 1 and indicates whether a streak head is not 

(0) or is (1) shown. The streakindex parameter indicates the length of the streak. 

SHOWTERRAIN If terrain is present, specifies that terrain should be visualized as a warped sheet 

rather than as a set of FDS blockages. 

SHOWTICKS Specifies whether labels should be drawn (1) or not drawn (0). Ticks are specified using 

the TICK keyword described in subsection 15. (default: 0) 

SHOWTIMEBAR Specifies whether the timebar should be drawn (1) or not drawn (0). (default: 1) 

SHOWTIMELABEL Specifies whether the time label should be drawn (1) or not drawn (0). (default: 

1) 

SHOWTRANSPARENTVENTS Specifies whether vents specified as being invisible should be shown 

(1) or not shown (0). (default: 0).. 

SHOWHMSTIMELABEL Specifies whether the time label should be drawn (1) or not drawn (0) using 

the format “h:m:s” where “h” is hours, “m” is minutes and “s” is seconds. (default: 0) 

SHOWTITLE Specifies whether the title should be drawn (1) or not drawn (0). (default: 1) 

SHOWVENTS Specifies whether vents should be drawn (1) or not drawn (0). (default: 1) 

SHOWALLTEXTURES If wall textures are defined in the input .smv file, this option specifies whether 

to draw (1) or not to draw (0) wall textures. (default: 0) 

SHOWWALLS Specifies whether the four walls (four vertical bounding surfaces) should be drawn (1) 

or not drawn (0). (default: 1) 

SMOKERTHICK When the GPU is used to visualize smoke, this parameter specifies a relative thickness scaling factor. 

152
 
SMOOTHBLOCKSOLID Specifies that smooth blockages should be drawn as regular rectangular 

blockages: (default: 0) 

STARTUPVIEW Used by Smokeview to record the view to be displayed at startup (as defined in a 

previous Smokeview run). 

SURFINC Smokeview allows one to display two Plot3D isosurfaces simultaneously. The SURFINC 

parameter specifies the interval between displayed Plot3D surface values. (default: 0) 

TERRAINPARMS Specifies various parameters used to characterize how terrain appears. The parameters are the color at the minimum depth, the color at the maximum depth and scaling factor 

used to vertically exaggerate the scene. 

TERRAINPARMS 

terrain_rgba_zmin[0],terrain_rgba_zmin[1],terrain_rgba_zmin[2]; 

terrain_rgba_zmax[0],terrain_rgba_zmax[1],terrain_rgba_zmax[2]; 

vertical_factor); 

TIMEOFFSET Specifies that offset time in seconds added to the displayed simulation time. Along 

with the SHOWHMSTIMELABEL keyword, the TIMEOFFSET keyword allows one to display 

wall clock rather than simulation time. (default: 0.0) 

TITLESAFE Amount in pixels to offset titles when displaying scene in title safe mode. (default: 0) 

TRANSPARENT Specifies whether 2D and 3D contours should be drawn with solid colors (0) or 

transparent colors(1). (default: 1) 

TWOSIDEDVENTS Specifies whether to draw vents so that they are visible from both sides (1) or 

visible from only one side (0). (default: 0) 

USEGPU If the GPU is available, specifies whether it should be used. (default: 1) 

VECLENGTH Specifies vector lengths. 

VECTORSKIP Specifies what vectors to draw. For example, if this parameter is set to 2 then every 

2nd vector is drawn when displaying vectors. (default: 1) 

VIEWPOINT5 Specifies the internal Smokeview parameters used to record a scene’s viewpoint and 

orientation. This parameter is set automatically by Smokeview when a .ini file is created. (default: none) 

VIEWPOINT5 

eyeview,rotation_index,view_id 

eye\_x,eye\_y,eye\_z,zoom,zoomindex 

view_angle,direction_angle,elevation_angle,projection_type 

xcen,ycen,zcen 

angle_zx[0],angle_zx[1] 

mat[0],mat[1],mat[2],mat[3] 

mat[4],mat[5],mat[6],mat[7] 

mat[8],mat[9],mat[10],mat[11] 

mat[12],mat[13],mat[14],mat[15] 

xyz_clipplane,clip_x,clip_y,clip_z,clip_X,clip_Y,clip_Z 

clip_x_val,clip_y_val,clip_z_val,clip_X_val,clip_Y_valclip_Z_val 

name 

•	 eyeview - view method type (0 - general rotations, 1 - first person movement, 2 - level 

rotations 

153
 
• eye - coordinates of viewing position 

• xcen, ycen, zcen - coordinates of view direction 

• mat - viewing transformation matrix 

• xyz_clipplane - global clipping flag (on=1, off=0) 

• clip_x, clip_y, clip_z - min clipping plane flag ((on=1, off=0) 

• clip_X, clip_Y, clip_Z - maxn clipping plane flag ((on=1, off=0) 

• clip_x_val, clip_y_val, clip_z_val - min clipping plane values 

• clip_X_val, clip_Y_val, clip_Z_val - max clipping plane values 

• name - label appearing in Viewpoint menu 

XYZCLIP Specifies clip planes in physical coordinates. There are six clipping planes, a minimum and 

maximum X, a minimum and maximum Y, a minimum and maximum Z. Each clipping plane 

may be used or not. The first parameter is 1 or 0 and specifies whether clipping is turned on or 

off. The next three lines specify clipping parameters for the X, Y and Z axes. Each line has the 

format 

minflag min-clipval maxflag max-clipval 

where the two flags, minflag and maxflag are 1 if turned on or 0 if turned off. Clipping is 

specified with the Clipping dialog box found under the Options menu item. (default: 

0 

0 0.0 0 0.0 

0 0.0 0 0.0 

0 0.0 0 0.0 

ZOOM	 Specifies the zoom amount used to display a Smokeview scene using two parameters, an integer zoom index and a floating point zoom amount. If the zoom index is 0->4 then the zoom 

amount is 0.25, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 respectively. If the zoom index is negative then the second 

parameter is used to specify the zoom amount. (default: 0 1.0) 

D.3.6 Tour Parameters 

GLOBALTENSION Specifies whether the tour spline tension parameter found in the dialog box should 

(1) or should not (0) be used for ALL tour key frames. (default: 1) 

SHOWPATHNODES Specifies whether the path nodes should (1) or should not (0) be drawn. This is 

a debugging parameter, not normally used. (default: 0) 

SHOWTOURROUTE Specifies whether the tour route should (1) or should not (0) be drawn. (default: 

0) 

TOURS Keyword used to specify the tours. The format is 

TOURS 

ntours - number of tours 

label for tour 

nkeyframes - number of key frames for first tour 

time xpos ypos zpos 1 az elev bias continuity tension zoom localspeedflag 

... 

154
 
time xpos ... for last key frame 

nkeyframes for 2nd tour 

... 

... 

If a Cartesian view direction is specified then instead of 1 az elev above use 0 xview yview 

zview where xview, yview, zview are the coordinates of the view direction. The Circle tour is 

not stored in the .ini file unless it has been changed by the user. The tour entry created by using 

the Add button in the Tour dialog box is given by 

TOURS
 

1
 

Added Tour 1
 

2
 

0.0 -1.0 -1.0 -1.0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 0 

100.0 7.4 9.0 7.4 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 0 

TOURCOLORS Keyword used to specify the tour colors. The colors as before consist of a red, green 

and blue component ranging from 0.0 to 1.0 . One can override Smokeview’s choice for the 

path, the path knots for both the selected and un-selected case. One may also specify the color 

of the time labels and the location of the object or avatar on the tour at the current time. The 

foreground color is used when a color component less than 0.0 is specified. Default: 

TOURCOLORS
 

1.000000 0.000000 0.000000 :selected path line
 

1.000000 0.000000 0.000000 :selected path line knots
 

0.000000 1.000000 0.000000 :selected knot
 

-1.000000 -1.000000 -1.000000 :path line
 

-1.000000 -1.000000 -1.000000 :path knots
 

-1.000000 -1.000000 -1.000000 :text
 

1.000000 0.000000 0.000000 :avatar
 

TOURCONSTANTVEL Specifies whether the avatar should (1) or should not (0) traverse the path 

with a constant velocity. (default: 1) 

VIEWALLTOURS Specifies whether all (1) tours should be drawn. (default: 0) 

VIEWTOURFROM Specifies whether the scene should (1) or should not (0) be observed from the 

selected tour. 

VIEWTIMES Specifies the tour start time, tour stop time and number of points to specify a tour. (default: 0.0 100.0 1000) 

D.3.7 Realistic Smoke Parameters 

ADJUSTALPHA The ALPHA parameter in OpenGL/Smokeview is used to specify the transparency 

of an object. The ALPHA’s are computed in FDS and adjusted in SMOKEVIEW according to 

value of the ADJUSTALPHA keyword. If ADJUSTALPHA is zero, then no adjustments to ALPHA are made. If ADJUSTALHPA is one, then ALPHA’s are adjusted for non-orthogonal view 

directions (ALPHA is increased to account for longer path lengths along non-orthogonal view 

directions. If ADJUSTALPHA is two, then ALPHA’s are adjusted as in the ADJUSTALPHA=1 

case and are also set to zero on wall at blockage boundaries (this reduces graphical artifacts). 

(default: 1) 

155
 
FIRECOLOR Specifies the color of the fire in red, green, blue coordinates. Each color component is 

an integer ranging from 0 to 255. (default: 255, 128, 0) 

FIREDEPTH Specifies the depth at which the fire is 50 percent transparent. (default: 2.0) 

SMOKECULL Cull (or do not draw) smoke if it is outside of the viewing frustum. (default: 1) 

SMOKESHADE Grey level of smoke, may range from 0 to 255. (default: 255) 

SMOKESKIP To speed up smoke drawing, spatial frames may be skipped. Allowable parameters are 

(0, 1, 2). (default: 0) 

SMOKETHICK The ALPHA transparency parameter may be divided by a power of two (2SMOKETHICK) 

to make the smoke thinner. Parameters may range from 0 to 7. (default: 0) 

D.3.8 Zone Fire Modeling Parameters 

SHOWHZONE Specifies whether upper layer temperatures should be (1) drawn horizontally or not 

(0). (default: 0) 

SHOWVZONE Specifies whether upper layer temperatures should be (1) drawn vertically or not (0). 

(default: 1) 

SHOWHAZARDCOLORS Specifies whether upper layer temperatures should be (1) drawn in terms 

of hazard or drawn in terms of a standard color scale (0). (default: 0) 

D.4 Smokeview Parameter Input File (.smv file) 

The FDS software outputs simulation results into the Smokeview input file with extension .smv and various 

output data files whose format is documented in the next section. A .smv file is a formatted ascii text file 

consisting of a set of KEYWORDs followed by DATA describing the FDS case’s geometry, data file names 

and contents, sensor information, etc. 

D.4.1 Geometry Keywords 

GRID This keyword specifies the number of grid cells in the X, Y and Z directions. For example, 

GRID
 

10 20 30
 

specifies that there are 10, 20 and 30 grid cells in the X, Y and Z directions respectively. 

OFFSET This keyword specifies signals to Smokeview that a new mesh has begun and also gives values 

for the front, left bottom corner of the mesh. For example, 

OFFSET
 

xmin, ymin, zmin
 

Note that the xmin, ymin and zmin values must be identical to the corresponding values 

given in the PDIM keyword. The OFFSET keyword cannot be eliminated from the .smv file 

(it may seem logical to do this due to the presence of redundant data) because of its role in 

signaling new meshes. 

156
 
PDIM	 This keyword specifies the region where a mesh is located using the same convention as is used 

in an FDS input file to specify a blockage location. PDIM also specifies a color to use for 

drawing grids. For example, 

PDIM
 

xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax, zmin, zmax, r, g, b
 

where (xmin, ymin, ymax) and (xmax, ymax, zmax) represent opposite corners of 

a mesh and r, g and b represent the red, green and blue components (0.0 to 1.0) of grids drawn 

in the mesh. 

Note that the xmin, ymin and zmin values must be identical to the values given in the 

OFFSET keyword. 

SHOW_OBST(HIDE_OBST) This keyword specifies when a blockage should be shown(hidden). For 

example, 

SHOW_OBST 2
 

10 120.1
 

specifies that the tenth blockage in mesh 2 should be opened at 120.1 seconds. This keyword is 

automatically added to the .smv file by FDS. 

OBST	 This keyword specifies internal blockages. A FORTAN 2003 code segment describing the format of OBST data is given by: 

read(5,*)nb 

do i = 1, nb 

read(5,*)x1(i),x2(i),y1(i),y2(i),z1(i),z2(i), id(i), 

... s1(i),...,s6(i),tx(i),ty(i),tz(i)
 

end do
 

do i = 1, nb
 

read(5,*)ib1(i), ib2(i), jb1(i), jb2(i), kb1(i), kb2(i), 

... colorindex(i) blocktype(i), 

... red(i), green(i), blue(i), alpha(i) 

end do 

where the parameters are defined in Table D.1. The arrays x1, ..., z2 and ib1, ..., 

kb2 are required. All other arrays are optional and may be omitted. 

TOFFSET The TOFFSET keyword defines a default texture origin, (x0, y0,z0) . This origin may be 

overridden with data provided with the OBST keyword. For example, 

TOFFSET 

0.0 0.0 0.0 

TRNX,TRNY,TRNZ The TRNX, TRNY, TRNZ keywords specify grid nodes in the X, Y, Z coordinate directions. A FORTAN 2003 code segment describing the format of TRNX data is given 

by: 

read(5,*)nv
 

do i = 1, nv
 

read(5,*)idummy
 

end do
 

157
 
Table D.1: Descriptions of parameters used by the Smokeview OBST keyword.
 

Variable(s) type Description 

nb integer number of blockages or entries for the OBST keyword 

x1, x2 

y1,y2 

z1,z2 

float floating point blockage bounds 

id integer blockage identifier 

s1, s2 

s3, s4 

s5, s6 

integer index of surface (SURF) used to draw blockage sides 

tx, ty, tz float texture origin 

ib1, ib2 

jb1, jb2 

kb1, kb2 

integer Indices used to define blockage bounds in terms of grid 

locations. 

colorindex integer 

Type of coloring used to color blockage. 

-1 - default color 

-2 - invisible 

-3 - use red, green, blue and alpha to follow (values follow) 

n>0 - use n’th color table entry 

blocktype integer 

Defines how the blockage is drawn. 

-1 - use surface to obtain blocktype 

0 - regular block 

2 - outline 

3 - smooth 

red, green, blue 

alpha float 

Each color value ranges from 0.0 to 1.0 . The alpha 

color represents transparency, alpha=0.0 is transparent, alpha=1.0 is opaque. 

158
 
do i = 1, nv
 

read(5,*)xplt(i)
 

end do
 

TRNY and TRNZ data entries are defined similarly. The first nx data items are not required by 

Smokeview. 

VENT, CVENT These keywords specify vent coordinates for regular and circular vents. Note that the 

parameters x0, y0, z0 and radius describing the center and radius of a circular vent only 

appear with the CVENT keyword. A FORTRAN 2003 code segment describing the format of 

VENT and CVENT data is given by: 

read(5,*)nv 

do i = 1, nv 

read(5,*)xv1(i), xv2(i), yv1(i), yv2(i), zv1(i), zv2(i), id(i) 

... s1(i), tx(i), ty(i), tz(i) % x0, y0, z0, radius 

end do 

do i = 1, nv 

read(5,*)iv1(i), iv2(i), jv1(i), jv2(i), kv1(i), kv2(i) 

... index(i), type(i), red(i), green(i), blue(i), alpha(i) 

end do 

where the parameters are defined in Table D.2. The arrays xv1, ..., zv2 and iv1, ..., 

kv2 are required. All other arrays are optional and may be omitted. 

OPEN_VENT(CLOSE_VENT) This keyword specifies when a vent should be opened(closed). For 

example, 

OPEN_VENT 2 

3 15.6 

specifies that the third vent in mesh 2 should be opened at 15.6 S. 

XYZ	 The XYZ keyword defines the .xyz or Plot3D grid file name. A FORTAN 2003 code segment 

describing the format of XYZ data is given by: 

read(5,"(a)")xyzfilename 

where xyzfilename is a character variable containing the name of the .xyz file. 

D.4.2 File Keywords 

BNDF	 The BNDF keyword defines the .bf file name along with character labels used to describe the 

data contents of the boundary file. 

HRRPUVCUT The HRRPUVCUT keyword defines the heat release rate per unit volume cutoff value. 

When displaying realistic smoke and fire, fire is displayed above this cutoff and smoke is displayed below. 

INPF	 The INPF keyword specifies a file containing a copy of the FDS input file. 

ISOF	 The ISOF keyword defines the .iso file name along with character labels used to describe the 

data contents of the isosurface file. 

159
 
Table D.2: Descriptions of parameters used by the Smokeview VENT and CVENT keywords.
 

Variable(s) type Description 

nv integer number of vents or entries for the VENT keyword 

xv1, xv2 

yv1,yv2 

zv1,zv2 

float floating point bounds 

id integer vent identifier 

s1 integer index of surface (SURF) used to draw vent 

tx, ty, tz float texture origin 

iv1, iv2 

jv1, jv2 

kv1, kv2 

integer Indices used to define vent bounds in terms of grid locations. 

index integer 

Type of coloring used to color vent. 

-99 or +99 - use default color 

-n or +n - use n’th palette color 

< 0 - do not draw boundary file over vent 

> 0 - draw boundary file over vent 

type integer 

Defines how the vent is drawn. 

0 - solid surface 

2 - outline 

-2 - hidden 

red, green, blue 

alpha float 

Each color value ranges from 0.0 to 1.0 . The alpha 

color represents transparency, alpha=0.0 is transparent, alpha=1.0 is opaque. 

x0, y0, z0 float circular vent origin 

radius float if positive, radius of circular vent 

160
 
PART,PRT5 The PART and PRT5 keywords define the .part file name along with character labels 

used to describe the data contents of the particle file. 

PL3D	 The PL3D keyword defines the .q file name along with character labels used to describe the 

data contents for each Plot3D variable. 

SLCF,SLCT The SLCF and SLCT keywords define the .sf file name along with character labels used 

to describe the data contents of the slice file. The SLCT keyword is used for wildland urban 

interface fire simulations performed over terrains. Smokeview allows one to visualize slice files 

for these types of simulations that conform to the terrain. 

D.4.3 Device (sensor) Keywords 

DEVICE A device generalizes the notion of a sensor, sprinkler or heat detector. The DEVICE keyword 

defines the device location and name. This name is used to access the set of instructions for 

drawing the device. These instructions are contained in a file named objects.svo. The default location of this file on the PC is C:\Program Files\FDS\FDS5\bin\objects.svo . This file 

may be customized by the user by adding instructions for devices of their own design (i.e., custom devices may be added to a Smokeview visualization without re-programming Smokeview). 

See Chapter 7 for more information on how to do this. The format for the DEVICE keyword is 

DEVICE
 

device_name
 

x y z xn yn zn 0 0 % PROP_ID
 

where device_name is the entry in the objects.svo file used to draw the device and (x, y,z)

and (xn,yn,zn) are the location and direction vector of the device. The label PROP_ID (prepended by a %) is the PROP entry used to list of other properties used for drawing the device 

(see the PROP entry in this section for more details). Note, the two 0 0 numbers are used for 

backwards compatibility. 

DEVICE_ACT The DEVICE_ACT keyword defines the activation time for a particular device. The 

format for the DEVICE_ACT keyword is 

DEVICE_ACT
 

idevice time state
 

where time is the activation time of the idevice’th device. State is the state of the device, 0 

for off or in-active and 1 for on or active. If the device may be drawn more than two ways then 

more than 2 states may be used with this keyword. 

HEAT	 The HEAT keyword defines heat detector location data. A FORTAN 2003 code segment describing the format of HEAT data is given by: 

read(5,*)nheat
 

do i = 1, nheat
 

read(5,*)xheat(i),yheat(i),zheat(i)
 

end do
 

where nheat is the number of heat detectors and xheat, yheat, zheat are the x, y, 

z coordinates of the heat detectors. 

HEAT_ACT The HEAT_ACT keyword defines heat detector activation data. A FORTAN 2003 code 

161
 
segment describing the format of HEAT_ACT data is given by: 

read(5,*)iheat, heat_time 

where heat_time is the activation time of the iheat’th heat detector. 

PROP	 The PROP keyword specifies a list of general properties used by Smokeview to customize the 

drawing of devices defined in the objects.svo file. The format of the PROP keyword is 

PROP
 

prop_id (character string)
 

smokeview_id (character string)
 

number of keyword/value pairs (integer)
 

keyword1=value1 (character string)
 

..
 

..
 

keywordn=valuen (character string)
 

number of texture files (integer) (0 or 1 for now)
 

texture file 1
 

...
 

...
 

texture file n
 

SPRK	 The SPRK keyword defines sprinkler location data. A FORTAN 2003 code segment describing 

the format of SPRK data is given by: 

read(5,*)nsprink
 

do i = 1, nsprink
 

read(5,*)xsprink(i),ysprink(i),zsprink(i)
 

end do
 

where nsprink is the number of sprinklers and xsprink, ysprink, zsprink are the 

x, y, z coordinates of the sprinklers. 

SPRK_ACT The SPRK_ACT keyword defines sprinkler activation data. A FORTAN 2003 code segment describing the format of SPRK_ACT data is given by: 

read(5,*)isprink, sprink_time 

where sprink_time is the activation time of the isprink’th sprinkler. 

THCP	 The THCP keyword defines thermocouple location data. A FORTAN 2003 code segment describing the format of THCP data is given by: 

read(5,*)ntherm
 

do i = 1, ntherm
 

read(5,*)xtherm(i),ytherm(i),ztherm(i)
 

end do
 

where ntherm is the number of thermocouples and xtherm, ytherm and ztherm are 

the x, y and z coordinates of the thermocouples. 

162
 
D.4.4 Zone Modeling Keywords 

This section contains documentation for keywords used to describe features found in a zone fire model, 

features such as rooms, vents, fires, etc. 

FIRE	 The FIRE keyword defines the location and room number of a zone fire modeling fire. The 

format for the FIRE keyword is 

FIRE
 

i x y z
 

ROOM	 where i is the room number containing the fire and (x, y,z) is the location within the room of the 

base of the fire. One FIRE entry is specified for each fire. The order of the FIRE entries found 

in the .smv file should correspond to the ordering of the fires (i.e., The n’th fire is specified with 

the n’th .smv FIRE entry.) 

VENTGEOM The VENTGEOM keyword defines the location, orientation and size of a zone fire modeling vent ( with horizontal flow). The format for the VENTGEOM keyword is 

VENTGEOM
 

from to face width ventoffset bottom top r g b
 

where from and to are the room indices (ranging from 1 to the number of rooms) of the “from” 

and “to” rooms, face is the index of the wall (or face) where the vent is located (front wall=1, 

right wall=2, back wall=3, left wall=4), width is the vent width, bottom is the elevation 

(relative to the floor) of the vent sill, top is the elevation (relative to the floor) of the vent 

soffit and r, g, b are the red, green and blue components (ranging from 0.0 to 1.0) of the 

vent color. The order of the VENTGEOM entries found in the .smv file should correspond to the 

ordering of the vents (i.e., The n’th vent is specified with the n’th .smv VENTGEOM entry.) 

ROOM	 The ROOM keyword defines the size and location of a zone fire modeling compartment or room. 

The format for the ROOM keyword is 

ROOM
 

x y z
 

x0 y0 z0
 

ROOM	 where (x,y,z) is the width, depth and height of the room respectively and (x0, y0,z0) is the 

location of the left, front, bottom corner of the room. The order of the ROOM entries found in 

the .smv file should correspond to the ordering of the rooms (i.e., The n’th room is specified 

with the n’th .smv ROOM entry.) 

ZONE	 The ZONE keyword defines the file used to store zone fire modeling data and the types of data 

found within the file. The format for the ZONE keyword is 

ZONE
 

file
 

long label
 

short label
 

unit
 

long label
 

short label
 

163
 
unit
 

long label
 

short label
 

unit
 

long label
 

short label
 

unit
 

where file is the name of the file containing the zone fire modeling data. Note, Smokeview 

does not use the label or unit data with CFAST 6 or later. This data is found within the spread 

sheet data now used to store zone fire modeling data. 

D.4.5 Miscellaneous Keywords 

ALBEDO This keyword is not implemented yet. It will be used to specify the smoke albedo (0.0, 1.0). 

ENDIAN The ENDIAN keyword defines whether a big or little endian5 system is used to represent the 

data. The PC (both Windows and LINUX) uses the little endian system for representing numbers while most UNIX workstations use the big endian system. The PC version of Smokeview 

uses this keyword to determine whether data should be converted between these two systems 

before it is visualized. The valid ENDIAN parameters are BIG or LITTLE. 

REVISION The REVISION keyword defines the SVN revision or build number for the version of 

FDS that ran the case currently being visualized. The FDS build number is displayed in the 

Help menu along with the Smokeview build number. 

SYST The SYST keyword defines which system the FDS case was run on. The PC version of Smokeview uses this information (if the ENDIAN keyword is absent) to swap data bytes if the FDS 

case was run on a computer with a different endian format than the PC. 

TITLE1/TITLE2 The TITLE1 and TITLE2 keywords allow one to specify extra information documenting a Smokeview case. These keywords and associated labels are added by hand to the 

Smokeview (.smv) file using the format: 

TITLE1
 

first line of descriptive text
 

TITLE2
 

second line of descriptive text
 

D.5 CAD/GE1 file format 

A program called DXF2FDS, written by David Sheppard of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and 

Firearms (ATF), creates an FDS input file and a Smokeview geometric description file (.GE1) given a CAD 

description of the building being modeled. The CAD description must be in a dxf format and created using 

3DFACE commands. The .GE1 file has a simple text format and is described below. DXF2FDS specifies 

that .GE1 filename on the &DUMP line in an FDS input file using the RENDER_FILE keyword, as in 

5 Big-endian and little-endian are terms that describe the order in which a sequence of bytes are stored in computer memory. 

Big-endian is an order in which the big end (most significant value in the sequence) is stored first (at the lowest storage address). 

Little-endian is an order in which the little end (least significant value in the sequence) is stored first. The terms big-endian and 

little-endian are derived from the Lilliputians of Gulliver’s Travels, whose major political issue was whether soft-boiled eggs should 

be opened on the big end or the little end. 

164
 
&DUMP RENDER_FILE='Capecod.GE1' / 

FDS to perform computations and a CAD view. 

[APPEARANCE] 

nappearances 

string (material description) 

index r g b twidth, theight, alpha, shininess, tx0, ty0, tz0 

tfile 

: 

: The above entry is repeated nappearances-1 more times 

: 

[FACES] 

nfaces 

x1 y1 z1 x2 y2 z2 x3 y3 z3 x4 y4 z4 index 

The above line is repeated nfaces-1 more times. 

nappearances Number of appearance entries to follow Each appearance entry has 3 lines. 

string A material description is written out by DX2FDS but is ignored by Smokeview. 

index An index number starting at 0. 

r, g, b Red green and blue components of the CAD face used when a texture is not drawn. The values 

of r, g and b range from 0 to 255. If a color is not used then use -1 for each color component. 

twidth, theight Textures are tiled or repeated. The characteristic width and length of the texture file is 

twidth and theight respectively. 

alpha	 Opaqueness value of the cad element being drawn. Values may range from 0.0 (completely 

transparent) to 1.0 (completely opaque. (default: 1.0) 

shininess Shininess value of the cad element being drawn. Values may be larger than 0.0 . (default: 

800.0) 

tx0, ty0, tz0 x, y and z values in physical coordinates of the offset used to apply a texture to a cad 

element. (default: 0.0, 0.0, 0.0) 

tfile	 The name of the texture file. If one is not used or available then leave this line blank. 

nfaces	 Number of face entries to follow. Each face entry has one line. 

x1/y1/z1/.../x4/y4/z4 x,y,z coordinates of a quadrilateral. T he four corners of the quad must lie in a 

plane or weird effects may result when Smokeview draws it. (This is a requirement of OpenGL). 

The four points should be in counter-clockwise order. 

index	 Points to a material in the [APPEARANCE] section. 

D.6 Objects.svo 

// $Date: 2013-08-18 23:08:47 -0400 (Sun, 18 Aug 2013) $
 

// $Revision: 16609 $
 

// $Author: gforney $
 

// ************ object file format ********************
 

165
 
// 1. comments and blank lines may be placed anywhere 

// 2. any line not beginning with "//" is part of the definition. 

// 3. the first non-comment line after OBJECTDEF is the object name 

// 4. an object definition may contain, labels, numerical constants 

// a number), string constants (enclosed in " ") and/or 

// commands (beginning with a-z) 

// 5. a label begins with ':' as in :dx 

// 6. the label :dx may be accessed afterward using $dx 

// 7. An object may contain multiple frames or states. A new frame within 

// an object is defined using NEWFRAME 

// OBJECTDEF // OBJECTDEF begins the object definition 

// object_name // name or label for object 

// :var1 ... :varn // a series of labels may be specified for use by 

// // the object definition. Data is copied to these 

// // label locations using the SMOKEVIEW_PARAMETERS 

// // &PROP keyword or from a particle file. The data 

// // in :varn may be referenced elsewhere in the 

// // definition using $varn 

// // A series of argument/command pairs are specified on one or 

// // more lines. 

// arg1 ... argn command1 arg1 ... argn command2 ... 

// // An argument may be a numerical constant (e.g. 2.37), a string 

// // (e.g. "SKYBLUE"), a label (e.g. :var1), or a reference to a 

// // label located elsewhere (e.g. $var1) 

// NEWFRAME // beginning of next frame 

// more argument/command pairs for the next object frame 

// .... 

// ************ static object definitions - single frame/state ******************** 

OBJECTDEF 

debug_thermocouple 

"BLUE" setcolor 

push 0.00625 0.00625 0.075 scalexyz 1.0 1.0 drawdisk pop push 0.0 0.0 0.0375 

translate 0.008 drawsphere pop
 

"RED" setcolor
 

push .075 0.00625 0.00625 scalexyz 1.0 1.0 drawdisk pop push 0.0375 0.0 0.0
 

translate 0.008 drawsphere pop
 

"GREEN" setcolor
 

push 0.00625 0.075 0.00625 scalexyz 1.0 1.0 drawdisk pop push 0.0 0.0375 0.0
 

translate 0.008 drawsphere pop 

0 0 0 setrgb 

90.0 rotatex 

0.005 0.005 0.005 scalexyz 

2.0 drawsphere
 

153 153 153 setrgb
 

push 3.4 0.0 3.5 translate 90.0 rotatey 0.5 5.0 drawdisk pop
 

push 45.0 rotatey 0.5 5.0 drawdisk pop
 

push 3.4 0.0 -3.5 translate 90.0 rotatey 0.5 5.0 drawdisk pop
 

push 135.0 rotatey 0.5 5.0 drawdisk pop
 

166
 
OBJECTDEF 

thermocouple 

0 0 0 setrgb 

90.0 rotatex 

0.005 0.005 0.005 scalexyz 

2.0 drawsphere
 

153 153 153 setrgb
 

push 3.4 0.0 3.5 translate 90.0 rotatey 0.5 5.0 drawdisk pop
 

push 45.0 rotatey 0.5 5.0 drawdisk pop
 

push 3.4 0.0 -3.5 translate 90.0 rotatey 0.5 5.0 drawdisk pop
 

push 135.0 rotatey 0.5 5.0 drawdisk pop
 

OBJECTDEF 

target 

153 153 153 setrgb 

0.0 0.0 -0.005 translate 0.2 0.01 drawdisk 

OBJECTDEF // used by smokeview to display smoke thickness 

smokesensor 

"WHITE" setcolor 

0.15 drawsphere 

OBJECTDEF // draw a plane intersecting through FDS meshes 

plane 

"GREEN" setcolor 

0.038 drawsphere 

// ************ static object definitions - multiple frames/states 

******************** 

OBJECTDEF 

sensor 

0 255 0 setrgbval 

0.25 SCALEGRID 1.0 drawsphere 

NEWFRAME 

255 0 0 setrgbval 

0.25 SCALEGRID 1.0 drawsphere 

NEWFRAME 

0 0 255 setrgbval 

0.25 SCALEGRID 1.0 drawsphere 

NEWFRAME 

255 255 255 setrgbval 

0.25 SCALEGRID 1.0 drawsphere 

OBJECTDEF 

heat_detector // label, name of object 

// The heat detector has three parts
 

// a disk, a truncated disk and a sphere.
 

// The sphere changes color when activated.
 

204 204 204 setrgb // set color to off white 

180.0 rotatey 0.0 0.0 0.03 translate
 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.02 translate 0.127 0.04 drawdisk pop
 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.04 translate
 

0.06 0.08 0.02 drawtrunccone pop
 

"GREEN" setcolor
 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.03 translate 0.04 drawsphere pop
 

// push and pop are not necessary in the last line
 

167
 
// of a frame. Its a good idea though to prevent
 

// problems if parts are added later.
 

NEWFRAME // beginning of activated definition
 

204 204 204 setrgb
 

180.0 rotatey 0.0 0.0 0.03 translate 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.02 translate 0.127 0.04 drawdisk pop 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.04 translate 

0.06 0.08 0.02 drawtrunccone pop
 

"RED" setcolor
 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.03 translate
 

0.04 drawsphere pop 

OBJECTDEF 

sprinkler_upright 

180.0 rotatey 0.0 0.0 -0.04 translate 

"BRICK" setcolor 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.015 translate 0.03 0.03 drawdisk pop 

push 0.0105 0.0 0.055 translate -22 rotatey 

0.0085 0.004 0.05 scalexyz 1.0 drawcube pop
 

push -0.0105 0.0 0.055 translate 22 rotatey
 

0.0085 0.004 0.05 scalexyz 1.0 drawcube pop
 

push 0.019 0.0 0.02 translate
 

0.0085 0.004 0.03 scalexyz 1.0 drawcube pop
 

push -0.019 0.0 0.02 translate
 

0.0085 0.004 0.03 scalexyz 1.0 drawcube pop
 

push 0.0 0.0 0.07 translate
 

0.010 0.017 0.020 drawtrunccone pop
 

push 0.0 0.0 0.089 translate
 

0.064 0.002 0.004 -1.0 drawnotchplate pop
 

"GREEN" setcolor
 

push 0.00 0.0 0.04 translate
 

0.4 0.4 1.0 scalexyz 0.03 drawsphere pop
 

NEWFRAME
 

"BRICK" setcolor
 

180.0 rotatey 0.0 0.0 -0.04 translate 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.015 translate 0.03 0.03 drawdisk pop 

push 0.0105 0.0 0.055 translate -22 rotatey 

0.0085 0.004 0.05 scalexyz 1.0 drawcube pop
 

push 0.0190 0.0 0.020 translate
 

0.0085 0.004 0.03 scalexyz 1.0 drawcube pop
 

push -0.0105 0.0 0.055 translate 22 rotatey
 

0.0085 0.004 0.05 scalexyz 1.0 drawcube pop
 

push -0.0190 0.0 0.020 translate
 

0.0085 0.004 0.03 scalexyz 1.0 drawcube pop
 

push 0.0 0.0 0.07 translate
 

0.01 0.017 0.02 drawtrunccone pop
 

push 0.0 0.0 0.089 translate
 

0.064 0.002 0.004 -1.0 drawnotchplate pop
 

"BLUE" setcolor
 

push 0.0 0.0 0.015 translate 0.015 drawsphere pop
 

OBJECTDEF 

sprinkler_pendent 

"BRICK" setcolor 

0.0 0.0 -0.04 translate 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.015 translate 0.03 0.03 drawdisk pop 

push 0.0105 0.0 0.055 translate -22 rotatey 

0.0085 0.004 0.05 scalexyz 1.0 drawcube pop
 

push 0.019 0.0 0.02 translate
 

168
 
0.0085 0.004 0.03 scalexyz 1.0 drawcube pop
 

push -0.0105 0.0 0.055 translate 22 rotatey
 

0.0085 0.004 0.05 scalexyz 1.0 drawcube pop
 

push -0.019 0.0 0.02 translate
 

0.0085 0.004 0.03 scalexyz 1.0 drawcube pop
 

push 0.0 0.0 0.07 translate
 

0.01 0.017 0.02 drawtrunccone pop
 

push 0.0 0.0 0.089 translate
 

0.064 0.002 0.008 1.0 drawnotchplate pop
 

"GREEN" setcolor
 

push 0.00 0.0 0.04 translate
 

0.4 0.4 1.0 scalexyz 0.03 drawsphere pop
 

NEWFRAME
 

"BRICK" setcolor
 

push
 

0.0 0.0 -0.04 translate
 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.015 translate 0.03 0.03 drawdisk pop
 

push 0.0105 0.0 0.055 translate -22 rotatey
 

0.0085 0.004 0.05 scalexyz 1.0 drawcube pop
 

push 0.019 0.0 0.02 translate
 

0.0085 0.004 0.03 scalexyz 1.0 drawcube pop
 

push -0.0105 0.0 0.055 translate 22 rotatey
 

0.0085 0.004 0.05 scalexyz 1.0 drawcube pop
 

push -0.019 0.0 0.02 translate
 

0.0085 0.004 0.03 scalexyz 1.0 drawcube pop
 

push 0.0 0.0 0.07 translate
 

0.01 0.017 0.02 drawtrunccone pop
 

push 0.0 0.0 0.089 translate
 

0.064 0.002 0.008 1.0 drawnotchplate pop
 

"BLUE" setcolor
 

push 0.0 0.0 0.015 translate 0.015 drawsphere pop
 

pop
 

OBJECTDEF 

smoke_detector 

204 204 204 setrgb 

180.0 rotatey 0.0 0.0 0.02 translate 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.025 translate 0.127 0.05 drawdisk pop 

"GREEN" setcolor 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.02 translate 0.04 drawsphere pop 

26 26 26 setrgb 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.028 translate 0.10 0.11 0.02 drawring pop 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.028 translate 0.07 0.08 0.02 drawring pop 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.028 translate 0.04 0.05 0.02 drawring pop 

NEWFRAME 

204 204 204 setrgb 

180.0 rotatey 0.0 0.0 0.02 translate 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.025 translate 0.127 0.05 drawdisk pop 

"RED" setcolor 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.02 translate 0.04 drawsphere pop 

26 26 26 setrgb 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.028 translate 0.10 0.11 0.02 drawring pop 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.028 translate 0.07 0.08 0.02 drawring pop 

push 0.0 0.0 -0.028 translate 0.04 0.05 0.02 drawring pop 

OBJECTDEF 

nozzle 

0.0 0.0 -0.041402 translate 

169
 
"BRICK" setcolor
 

0.022225 0.0127 drawhexdisk
 

push 0.0 0.0 0.0127 translate 0.01905 0.01905 drawdisk pop
 

push 0.0 0.0 0.031751 translate 0.01905 0.009525 drawhexdisk pop
 

204 204 204 setrgb
 

push 0.0 0.0 0.035052 translate 0.00635 0.00635 drawdisk pop
 

NEWFRAME
 

0.0 0.0 -0.041402 translate
 

"BRICK" setcolor
 

0.022225 0.0127 drawhexdisk
 

push 0.0 0.0 0.0127 translate 0.01905 0.01905 drawdisk pop
 

push 0.0 0.0 0.031751 translate 0.01905 0.009525 drawhexdisk pop
 

"BLUE" setcolor
 

push 0.0 0.0 0.035052 translate 0.00635 0.00635 drawdisk pop
 

push 0.0 0.0 0.035052 translate 0.00635 drawsphere pop
 

push "BLUE" setcolor
 

0.0 0.0 0.0414 translate 0.012 drawsphere pop 

// ************ object definitions used for FDS-EVAC ******************** 

OBJECTDEF 

evacbox 

// draws a square "railings" 

// smv file: xyz is the (min_x, min_y, z) corner 

// orientation vector (0,0,1) 

// Red Green Blue width(x) depth(y) diameter 

:R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :DX :DY :D 

$R $G $B setrgb 

push 0.0 0.0 0.0 translate -90.0 rotatex $D $D $DY scalexyz 1.0 1.0 drawdisk pop 

push $DX 0.0 0.0 translate -90.0 rotatex $D $D $DY scalexyz 1.0 1.0 drawdisk pop 

push 0.0 0.0 0.0 translate 90.0 rotatey $D $D $DX scalexyz 1.0 1.0 drawdisk pop 

push 0.0 $DY 0.0 translate 90.0 rotatey $D $D $DX scalexyz 1.0 1.0 drawdisk pop 

// push $DX 0.0 0.0 translate -90.0 rotatex $D $D $DY scalexyz 1.0 drawcubec pop 

OBJECTDEF 

evacdoor // label, name of object 

:SX :SY :SZ :R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :DX :DY :DZ 

// Evacuation input: door or exit namelist 

push $DX $DY $DZ translate -180.0 rotatex 

34 139 3 setrgb 0.0 0.0 -0.6 translate 0.4 0.6 drawcone pop // draw an arrow 

-90.0 rotatez -90.0 rotatex 

push $SX $SY $SZ scalexyz $R $G $B setrgb 

0.0 -0.5 0.0 translate 1.0 drawcube pop // front half of door (user specified 

color)
 

push $SX $SY $SZ scalexyz 34 139 3 setrgb
 

0.0 0.5 0.0 translate 1.0 drawcube pop // back half of door (forest green) 

NEWFRAME 

:SX :SY :SZ :R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :DX :DY :DZ 

-90.0 rotatez -90.0 rotatex 

push $SX $SY $SZ scalexyz $R $G $B setrgb 

0.0 -0.5 0.0 translate 1.0 drawcube pop // front half of door (user specified 

color)
 

push $SX $SY $SZ scalexyz "RED" setcolor
 

0.0 0.5 0.0 translate 1.0 drawcube pop // back half of door (red) 

OBJECTDEF 

evacincline // label, name of object 

:SX :SY :SZ :R=0 :G=0 :B=0 

170
 
// Evacuation input: evss namelist
 

-90.0 rotatez -90.0 rotatex
 

push $SX $SY $SZ scalexyz $R $G $B setrgb
 

0.0 0.5 0.0 translate 1.0 drawcube pop // incline (user specified color) 

OBJECTDEF 

evacentr // label, name of object 

:SX :SY :SZ :R=0 :G=0 :B=0 

// Evacuation input: entr namelist 

-90.0 rotatez -90.0 rotatex 

push $SX $SY $SZ scalexyz $R $G $B setrgb 

0.0 -0.5 0.0 translate 1.0 drawcube pop // front half of door (user specified 

color)
 

push $SX $SY $SZ scalexyz 135 206 235 setrgb
 

0.0 0.5 0.0 translate 1.0 drawcube pop // back half of door (sky blue 135 206 235) 

NEWFRAME 

:SX :SY :SZ :R=0 :G=0 :B=0 

-90.0 rotatez -90.0 rotatex 

push $SX $SY $SZ scalexyz $R $G $B setrgb 

0.0 -0.5 0.0 translate 1.0 drawcube pop // front half of door (user specified 

color)
 

push $SX $SY $SZ scalexyz "RED" setcolor
 

0.0 0.5 0.0 translate 1.0 drawcube pop // back half of door (red) 

// ************ dynamic particle object definitions ********************
 

// (modifable using data obtained from FDS)
 

OBJECTDEF // object for particle file sphere 

sphere 

:R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :D=0.1 

$R $G $B setrgb 

$D drawsphere 

OBJECTDEF 

box 

:R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :DX :DY :DZ 

$R $G $B setrgb 

$DX $DY $DZ scalexyz 1.0 drawcubec 

OBJECTDEF // object for particle file tube 

tube 

:R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :D=0.1 :L=0.1 :RANDXY=0.0 :RANDXZ=0 :RANDYZ=0 :RANDXYZ=0.0 :DIRX=0.0 

:DIRY=0.0 :DIRZ=0.0
 

$R $G $B setrgb
 

$RANDXY randxy $RANDXZ randxz $RANDYZ randyz $RANDXYZ randxyz $DIRX $DIRY $DIRZ
 

orienx 90.0 rotatey $D $L drawcdisk 

OBJECTDEF // object for particle file tube 

cylinder 

:R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :D=0.1 :L=0.1 

$R $G $B setrgb 

90.0 rotatey $D $L drawcdisk 

OBJECTDEF // object for particle "egg" 

egg 

:R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :D=0.1 :DX // data obtained from an FDS input file 

$R $G $B setrgb 

$DX $D $D scalexyz 1.0 drawsphere 

171
 
OBJECTDEF // object for particle file tube 

veltube 

:R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :D=0.1 :L=0.1 :U-VEL=1.0 :V-VEL=1.0 :W-VEL=1.0 :VELMIN=0.01 

:VELMAX=0.2
 

$R $G $B setrgb
 

$U-VEL :UV abs $UV $VELMAX :U div $U 0.0 1.0 :CU clip
 

$V-VEL :VV abs $VV $VELMAX :V div $V 0.0 1.0 :CV clip
 

$W-VEL :WV abs $WV $VELMAX :W div $W 0.0 1.0 :CW clip
 

$CU $CV $CW rotatexyz $CU $CV $CW scalexyz $D $L drawcdisk
 

OBJECTDEF // color with FDS quantity, stretch with velocity 

velegg 

:R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :D=1.0 :U-VEL=1.0 :V-VEL=1.0 :W-VEL=1.0 :VELMIN=0.01 :VELMAX=0.2 // 

data obtained from an FDS input file
 

$R $G $B setrgb
 

$U-VEL :UV abs $UV $VELMAX :U div $U 0.0 1.0 :CU clip
 

$V-VEL :VV abs $VV $VELMAX :V div $V 0.0 1.0 :CV clip
 

$W-VEL :WV abs $WV $VELMAX :W div $W 0.0 1.0 :CW clip
 

$CU $CV $CW rotatexyz $CU $CV $CW scalexyz $D drawsphere
 

OBJECTDEF // object for particle "egg" 

tempegg 

:R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :D=0.1 :DX :temp :rot_rate // data obtained from an FDS input file 

$temp 700.0 :tempd28 div $tempd28 $G $B setrgb 

$rot_rate 0.0 :rotz multiaddt $rotz rotatez 0.2 $tempd28 0.2 scalexyz 1.0 drawsphere 

OBJECTDEF 

block 

:R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :DX=1.0 :DY=1.0 :DZ=1.0 

$R $G $B setrgb 

$DX $DY $DZ scalexyz 1.0 drawcubec 

OBJECTDEF // object for a general ball 

ball 

:R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :DX :DY :DZ :D=-.1 

$D 0.0 :DGT0 GT 

$R $G $B setrgb 

$DGT0 IF 

$D drawsphere
 

ELSE
 

$DX $DY $DZ scalexyz 1.0 drawsphere
 

ENDIF
 

NO_OP
 

OBJECTDEF 

face_eye 

:R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :W :H
 

$R $G $B setrgb
 

rotateeye $W $H 1.0 scalexyz 1.0 drawsquare
 

OBJECTDEF // object for dynamic textured sphere 

movingsphere 

:R=0 :G=0 :B=0 // sphere color 

:X0 :Y0 :Z0 // sphere origin 

:VX :VY :VZ // sphere velocity 

:ROTATE_RATE // rotation rate 

:D=0.1 // sphere diameter 

:tfile // texture file 

$R $G $B setrgb 

172
 
$VX $X0 :vvx multiaddt 

$VY $Y0 :vvy multiaddt 

$VZ $Z0 :vvz multiaddt 

$vvx $vvy $vvz translate $ROTATE_RATE 0.0 :rotz multiaddt 

$rotz rotatez 180.0 rotatey $tfile :textureindex gettextureindex $textureindex $D 

drawtsphere 

OBJECTDEF // object for a moving box 

movingbox 

:R=255 :G=0 :B=0 // box color 

:X0 :Y0 :Z0 // lower left front box corner 

:VX :VY :VZ // box velocity 

:DX :DY :DZ // box size 

:XMAX :YMAX :ZMAX 

$R $G $B setrgb 

$VX $X0 :vvx multiaddt $vvx 0.0 $XMAX :CLIPX mirrorclip 

$VY $Y0 :vvy multiaddt $vvy 0.0 $YMAX :CLIPY mirrorclip 

$VZ $Z0 :vvz multiaddt $vvz 0.0 $ZMAX :CLIPZ mirrorclip 

$CLIPX $CLIPY $CLIPZ gtranslate $DX $DY $DZ scalexyz 1.0 drawcube 

OBJECTDEF // object for dynamic textured sphere 

demosphere 

:R=0 :G=0 :B=0 // sphere color 

:X0 :Y0 :Z0 // sphere origin 

:VX :VY :VZ // sphere velocity 

:ROTATE_RATE // rotation rate 

:D=0.1 // sphere diameter 

:tfile // texture file 

:XMAX :YMAX :ZMAX // box bounds 

$R $G $B setrgb 

$VX $X0 :vvx multiaddt $vvx 0.0 $XMAX :CLIPX mirrorclip 

$VY $Y0 :vvy multiaddt $vvy 0.0 $YMAX :CLIPY mirrorclip 

$VZ $Z0 :vvz multiaddt $vvz 0.0 $ZMAX :CLIPZ mirrorclip 

$CLIPX $CLIPY $CLIPZ gtranslate $ROTATE_RATE 0.0 :rotz multiaddt 

$rotz rotatez $tfile :textureindex gettextureindex $textureindex $D drawtsphere 

OBJECTDEF // object for dynamic textured sphere 

ttest 

:texture_file 

$texture_file :textureindex gettextureindex $textureindex 1.0 drawtsphere 

OBJECTDEF // object to test IF, LE, GT and AND operators 

conditional_ball 

:DX :DY :DZ // parameters passed from FDS in SMOKEVIEW_PARAMETERS array 

:time gett // get the current time 

$time 3.0 :LE_L LE // is time .le. 3 

$time 3.0 :GE_L GT // is time .gt. 3 

$time 6.0 :LE_H LE // is time .le. 6 

$time 6.0 :GT_H GT // is time .gt 6 

$LE_L IF 

"RED" setcolor // set the color to red if t .le. 3.0 

ENDIF 

$GE_L $LE_H :ANDTEST AND $ANDTEST IF 

"GREEN" setcolor // set the color to green if t .gt. 3.0 and t .le.6 

ENDIF 

$GT_H IF 

"BLUE" setcolor // set the color to blue if t > 6.0 

ENDIF 

$DX $DY $DZ scalexyz 1.0 drawsphere 

173
 
OBJECTDEF 

fan 

:HUB_R=0 :HUB_G=0 :HUB_B=0 :HUB_D=0.1 :HUB_L=0.12 

:BLADE_R=128 :BLADE_G=64 :BLADE_B=32 :BLADE_ANGLE=30.0 :BLADE_D=0.5 :BLADE_H=0.09 

:ROTATION_RATE=360.0 

$HUB_L -2.0 :HUB_LD2 div
 

$BLADE_H -2.0 :BLADE_HD2 div
 

$HUB_R $HUB_G $HUB_B setrgb
 

$ROTATION_RATE 0.0 :rotz multiaddt $rotz rotatez
 

push
 

0.0 0.0 $HUB_LD2 translate 

$HUB_D $HUB_L drawdisk
 

pop
 

push
 

$BLADE_R $BLADE_G $BLADE_B setrgb 

0.0 0.0 $BLADE_HD2 translate 

$BLADE_ANGLE $BLADE_D $BLADE_H drawarcdisk
 

pop
 

push
 

120.0 rotatez 

0.0 0.0 $BLADE_HD2 translate 

$BLADE_ANGLE $BLADE_D $BLADE_H drawarcdisk
 

pop
 

push
 

240.0 rotatez 

0.0 0.0 $BLADE_HD2 translate 

$BLADE_ANGLE $BLADE_D $BLADE_H drawarcdisk
 

pop
 

OBJECTDEF 

vent 

:R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :W :H :ROT=0.0
 

$ROT rotatez $R $G $B setrgb
 

$W $H 1.0 scalexyz 1.0 drawsquare
 

NEWFRAME
 

:R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :W :H :ROT=0.0
 

$ROT rotatez $R $G $B setrgb
 

$W $H drawvent
 

OBJECTDEF 

cone 

:R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :D=0.4 :H=0.6
 

$R $G $B setrgb
 

$D $H drawcone
 

OBJECTDEF // object for dynamic textured sphere 

tsphere 

:R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :AX0 :ELEV0 :ROT0 :ROTATION_RATE :D=0.1 :tfile 

$R $G $B setrgb 

90.0 rotatey $AX0 rotatex $ELEV0 rotatey 

$ROTATION_RATE $ROT0 :rotz multiaddt $rotz rotatez
 

$tfile :textureindex gettextureindex $textureindex $D drawtsphere
 

// ************ dynamic tree object definitions ******************** 

OBJECTDEF // object for tree trunk 

TREE 

:TRUNK_D :TRUNK_H :TRUNK_BASE_H // trunk variables 

174
 
:TRUNK_R=138 :TRUNK_G=69 :TRUNK_B=18
 

:CANOPY_D :CANOPY_H :CANOPY_BASE_H // canopy variables
 

:CANOPY_R=25 :CANOPY_G=128 :CANOPY_B=0
 

$TRUNK_R $TRUNK_G $TRUNK_B setrgb
 

push 0.0 0.0 $TRUNK_BASE_H translate $TRUNK_D $TRUNK_H drawdisk pop
 

$CANOPY_R $CANOPY_G $CANOPY_B setrgb 

0.0 0.0 $CANOPY_BASE_H translate $CANOPY_D $CANOPY_H drawcone 

OBJECTDEF // object for tree trunk 

TRUNK 

:TRUNK_BASE_H :TRUNK_D :TRUNK_H :R=138 :G=69 :B=18 

$R $G $B setrgb 

0.0 0.0 $TRUNK_BASE_H translate $TRUNK_D $TRUNK_H drawdisk 

NEWFRAME 

:TRUNK_BASE_H :TRUNK_D :TRUNK_H 

0.0 0.0 0.0 setrgb 

0.0 0.0 $TRUNK_BASE_H translate $TRUNK_D $TRUNK_H drawdisk 

NEWFRAME 

:TRUNK_BASE_H :TRUNK_D :TRUNK_H 

0.0 0.0 0.0 setrgb 

0.0 0.0 $TRUNK_BASE_H translate $TRUNK_D $TRUNK_H drawdisk 

NEWFRAME 

0.0 0.0 0.0 translate 

OBJECTDEF // object for tree canopy 

CANOPY 

:CANOPY_BASE_H :CANOPY_D :CANOPY_H :R=25 :G=128 :B=0 

$R $G $B setrgbval 

0.0 0.0 $CANOPY_BASE_H translate $CANOPY_D $CANOPY_H drawcone 

NEWFRAME 

:CANOPY_BASE_H :CANOPY_D :CANOPY_H 

0.0 0.0 0.0 setrgbval 

0.0 0.0 $CANOPY_BASE_H translate $CANOPY_D $CANOPY_H drawcone 

NEWFRAME 

0.0 0.0 0.0 translate 

NEWFRAME 

0.0 0.0 0.0 translate 

OBJECTDEF // object for house 

HOUSE 

:R=0 :G=255 :B=0 :LENGTH=0.2 :DEPTH=0.2 :HEIGHT1=0.1 :HEIGHT2=0.05 

$R $G $B setrgb 

$LENGTH $DEPTH 1.0 scalexyz push 1.0 1.0 $HEIGHT1 scalexyz 1.0 drawcubec pop 0.0 0.0 

$HEIGHT1 translate 1.0 $HEIGHT2 drawtriblock 

OBJECTDEF // object for house 

MHOUSE 

:LENGTH=0.2 :DEPTH=0.2 :HEIGHT1=0.1 :HEIGHT2=0.05 

255 0 0 setrgb 

$LENGTH $DEPTH 1.0 scalexyz push 1.0 1.0 $HEIGHT1 scalexyz 1.0 drawcubec pop 0.0 0.0 

$HEIGHT1 translate 1.0 $HEIGHT2 drawtriblock
 

NEWFRAME
 

:LENGTH=0.2 :DEPTH=0.2 :HEIGHT1=0.1 :HEIGHT2=0.05
 

0 255 0 setrgb 

$LENGTH $DEPTH 1.0 scalexyz push 1.0 1.0 $HEIGHT1 scalexyz 1.0 drawcubec pop 0.0 0.0 

$HEIGHT1 translate 1.0 $HEIGHT2 drawtriblock
 

NEWFRAME
 

:LENGTH=0.2 :DEPTH=0.2 :HEIGHT1=0.1 :HEIGHT2=0.05
 

175
 
0 0 0 setrgb 

$LENGTH $DEPTH 1.0 scalexyz push 1.0 1.0 $HEIGHT1 scalexyz 1.0 drawcubec pop 0.0 0.0 

$HEIGHT1 translate 1.0 $HEIGHT2 drawtriblock
 

NEWFRAME
 

:LENGTH=0.2 :DEPTH=0.2 :HEIGHT1=0.1 :HEIGHT2=0.05
 

0 0 0 setrgb 

OBJECTDEF // object for tree canopy 

MCANOPY 

:CANOPY_BASE_H :CANOPY_D :CANOPY_H 

25 128 0 setrgb 

0.0 0.0 $CANOPY_BASE_H translate $CANOPY_D $CANOPY_H drawcone
 

NEWFRAME
 

:CANOPY_BASE_H :CANOPY_D :CANOPY_H
 

153 51 0 setrgb 

0.0 0.0 $CANOPY_BASE_H translate $CANOPY_D $CANOPY_H drawcone
 

NEWFRAME
 

:CANOPY_BASE_H :CANOPY_D :CANOPY_H
 

153 153 153 setrgb 

0.0 0.0 $CANOPY_BASE_H translate $CANOPY_D $CANOPY_H drawcone
 

NEWFRAME
 

:CANOPY_BASE_H :CANOPY_D :CANOPY_H
 

26 26 26 setrgb 

0.0 0.0 $CANOPY_BASE_H translate $CANOPY_D $CANOPY_H drawcone
 

NEWFRAME
 

:CANOPY_BASE_H :CANOPY_D :CANOPY_H
 

0 0 0 setrgb 

// ************ avatar object definitions ******************** 

AVATARDEF 

human_fixed // label, name of avatar 

:DUM1 :DUM2 :DUM3 :W :D=0.1 :H1 :SX :SY :SZ :R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :HX :HY :HZ 

90.0 rotatez
 

"TAN" setcolor // head color TAN 210 180 140
 

0.3 0.3 0.3 scalexyz 

0.0 0.0 0.0 translate 

push 0.0 0.0 5.2 translate 1.1 drawsphere
 

"BLUE" setcolor // eye color BLUE
 

push -0.25 -0.4 0.05 translate 0.2 drawsphere pop // eye
 

push 0.25 -0.4 0.05 translate 0.2 drawsphere pop // eye
 

pop // head
 

28 64 140 setrgb // body color 

push 0.0 0.0 3.55 translate 0.5 0.3 1.0 scalexyz 2.5 drawsphere pop // trunk 

"TAN" setcolor // arm color TAN 210 180 140 

push -0.9 0.0 3.5 translate 35.0 rotatey 0.2 0.2 1.0 scalexyz 3.0 drawsphere pop 

// arm 

push 0.9 0.0 3.5 translate -35.0 rotatey 0.2 0.2 1.0 scalexyz 3.0 drawsphere pop 

// arm 

39 64 139 setrgb // leg color ROYAL BLUE4: 39 64 139 

push -0.5 0.0 1.3 translate 30.0 rotatey 0.25 0.25 1.0 scalexyz 3.0 drawsphere pop 

// leg 

push 0.5 0.0 1.3 translate -30.0 rotatey 0.25 0.25 1.0 scalexyz 3.0 drawsphere pop 

// leg 

AVATARDEF 

human_altered_with_data // label, name of avatar 

:DUM1 :DUM2 :DUM3 :W :D=0.1 :H1 :SX :SY :SZ :R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :HX :HY :HZ 

90.0 rotatez 

176
 
"TAN" setcolor // head color TAN 210 180 140
 

$SX $SY $SZ scalexyz // scale by data height
 

1.0 1.0 0.579 scalexyz 

0.3 0.3 0.3 scalexyz 

push 0.0 0.0 5.2 translate 1.1 drawsphere
 

"BLUE" setcolor // eye color BLUE
 

push -0.25 -0.4 0.05 translate 0.2 drawsphere pop // eye
 

push 0.25 -0.4 0.05 translate 0.2 drawsphere pop // eye
 

pop // head
 

$R $G $B setrgb // body color
 

push 0.0 0.0 3.55 translate $W $D $H1 scalexyz 1.334 1.33 1.0 scalexyz 2.5
 

drawsphere pop // trunk, scale by width and depth 

"TAN" setcolor // arm color TAN 210 180 140 

push -0.9 0.0 3.5 translate 35.0 rotatey 0.2 0.2 1.0 scalexyz 3.0 drawsphere pop 

// arm 

push 0.9 0.0 3.5 translate -35.0 rotatey 0.2 0.2 1.0 scalexyz 3.0 drawsphere pop 

// arm 

39 64 139 setrgb // leg color ROYAL BLUE4: 39 64 139 

push -0.5 0.0 1.3 translate 30.0 rotatey 0.25 0.25 1.0 scalexyz 3.0 drawsphere pop 

// leg 

push 0.5 0.0 1.3 translate -30.0 rotatey 0.25 0.25 1.0 scalexyz 3.0 drawsphere pop 

// leg 

AVATARDEF 

ellipsoid // label, name of object 

:DUM1 :DUM2 :DUM3 :W :D=0.1 :H1 :SX :SY :SZ :R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :HX :HY :HZ 

90.0 rotatez 

$HX $HY $HZ translate $SX $SY $SZ scalexyz $W $D $H1 scalexyz 

push 0.0 -1.0 0.0 translate 1.0 5.0 0.5 scalexyz "BLUE" setcolor 0.4 drawsphere pop 

$R $G $B setrgb 1.0 drawsphere 

AVATARDEF 

disk // label, name of object 

:DUM1 :DUM2 :DUM3 :W :D=0.1 :H1 :SX :SY :SZ :R=0 :G=0 :B=0 :HX :HY :HZ 

90.0 rotatez 

0.0 0.0 1.0 translate $W $D $H1 scalexyz 

push 0.0 -0.25 0.05 translate 0.3 2.5 0.3 scalexyz "CYAN" setcolor 0.2 drawsphere 

pop
 

$R $G $B setrgb 1.0 0.05 drawdisk
 

AVATARDEF 

fire_fighter 

"TAN" setcolor // head color TAN 210 180 140 

0.3 0.3 0.3 scalexyz 

0.0 0.0 0.0 translate 

push 0.0 0.0 5.2 translate 1.1 drawsphere
 

"BLUE" setcolor // eye color BLUE
 

push -0.25 -0.4 0.05 translate 0.2 drawsphere pop // eye
 

push 0.25 -0.4 0.05 translate 0.2 drawsphere pop // eye
 

pop // head
 

"YELLOW" setcolor // body color 

push 0.0 0.0 3.55 translate 0.5 0.3 1.0 scalexyz 2.5 drawsphere pop // trunk 

"YELLOW" setcolor // arm color 

push -0.9 0.0 3.5 translate 35.0 rotatey 0.2 0.2 1.0 scalexyz 3.0 drawsphere pop 

// arm 

push 0.9 0.0 3.5 translate -35.0 rotatey 0.2 0.2 1.0 scalexyz 3.0 drawsphere pop 

// arm 

"BLUE" setcolor // leg color 

177
 
push -0.5 0.0 1.3 translate 30.0 rotatey 0.25 0.25 1.0 scalexyz 3.0 drawsphere pop 

// leg 

push 0.5 0.0 1.3 translate -30.0 rotatey 0.25 0.25 1.0 scalexyz 3.0 drawsphere pop 

// leg 

OBJECTDEF 

airpack 

96 96 96 setrgb 

push 180.0 rotatey 0.2 drawhsphere pop 

0.2 0.55 drawdisk 

0.0 0.0 0.55 translate 0.2 drawhsphere 

OBJECTDEF	 // used by smokeview to display smoke thickness 

helmit 

255 51 51 setrgb 

0.3 drawhsphere 

0.4 0.02 drawdisk 

AVATARDEF 

fire_fighter_with_gear // label, name of avatar 

push "fire_fighter" include pop 

push 0.0 0.0 1.65 translate 1.0 1.0 1.0 scalexyz "helmit" include pop 

push 0.0 0.2 0.80 translate "airpack" include pop 

// ************ Elementary object definitions ******************** 

// These definitions are used to illustrate the basic building blocks
 

// used to create more complex objects
 

OBJECTDEF 

drawaxisxyz 

"RED" setcolor 

push 90.0 rotatey 0.05 0.05 0.4 scalexyz 1.0 1.0 drawdisk pop 

"GREEN" setcolor 

push -90.0 rotatex 0.05 0.05 0.4 scalexyz 1.0 1.0 drawdisk pop 

"BLUE" setcolor 

push 0.05 0.05 0.4 scalexyz 1.0 1.0 drawdisk pop 

OBJECTDEF 

drawaxis2 

"BLACK" setcolor 

push 0.05 0.05 0.4 scalexyz 1.0 1.0 drawdisk pop 

"BLACK" setcolor
 

push 90.0 rotatey 0.05 0.05 0.6 scalexyz 1.0 1.0 drawdisk pop
 

OBJECTDEF 

drawaxis 

"BLACK" setcolor 

push 0.00625 0.00625 0.075 scalexyz 1.0 1.0 drawdisk pop 

"BLACK" setcolor 

push 90.0 rotatey 0.00625 0.00625 0.075 scalexyz 1.0 1.0 drawdisk pop 

OBJECTDEF 

drawcone 

"BRICK" setcolor 

0.50 0.30 drawcone 

OBJECTDEF 

drawcube 

"BRICK" setcolor 

0.25 drawcube 

178
 
OBJECTDEF 

drawdisk 

"BRICK" setcolor 

0.25 0.50 drawdisk 

OBJECTDEF 

drawcdisk 

"BRICK" setcolor 

0.25 0.50 drawcdisk 

OBJECTDEF 

drawhexdisk 

"BRICK" setcolor 

0.50 0.25 drawhexdisk 

OBJECTDEF 

drawnotchplate 

"BRICK" setcolor 

0.5 0.1 0.2 1 drawnotchplate 

OBJECTDEF 

drawnotchplate2 

"BRICK" setcolor 

0.5 0.1 0.2 -1 drawnotchplate 

OBJECTDEF 

drawpolydisk 

"BRICK" setcolor 

5 0.35 0.15 drawpolydisk 

OBJECTDEF 

drawring 

"BRICK" setcolor 

0.3 0.5 0.1 drawring 

OBJECTDEF 

drawsphere 

"BRICK" setcolor 

0.25 drawsphere 

OBJECTDEF 

drawtrunccone 

"BRICK" setcolor 

0.5 0.2 0.4 drawtrunccone 

OBJECTDEF 

drawarcdisk 

"BRICK" setcolor 

60.0 0.6 0.2 drawarcdisk 

179