Introduction

The PLAXIS Output program offers the possibility of using the command line to configure the plot settings to export a plot to an image file to be used in post-processing. The main article which covers the commands that can be used directly in the PLAXIS Output command line can be found here: Export and format plots from PLAXIS Output

In this article, the equivalent Python commands are presented to assist when handling the Output plots with the PLAXIS scripting environment.

Contents

• Plot settings
• ResultTypes
• PlotType
• LegendSettings
• MeshSettings
• Phase & PhaseBehaviour
• Other visualisation commands
• Export command
• Comments

Plot settings

To find the current settings applied to the last plot created in Output, one can use the following Python command: 

print(g_o.Plots[-1].echo())

Examples of changing some of the plot settings are provided below.

Show the rulers in your plot:

g_o.Plots[-1].DrawRulers = True

Hide the axes:

g_o.Plots[-1].DrawAxes= False

Exclude the legend of the plot:

g_o.Plots[-1].DrawLegend = False

Below are some special items in the properties of a plot object that concern every plot to be exported:

• ResultTypes
• PlotType
• LegendSettings
• MeshSettings

These will be explained in more detail below.

ResultTypes

The ResultTypes is the property that controls which result is visualized in the plot. This is related to the numerous options available via the menus, e.g. Deformations, Stresses, Forces, etc.

Some examples are provided below:

Set the plot result to Total horizontal displacement u_x:

g_o.Plots[-1].ResultType = g_o.ResultTypes.Soil.Ux

Set the plot result to Incremental vertical cartesian strains: Δε_yy:

g_o.Plots[-1].ResultType = g_o.ResultTypes.Soil.dEpsyy

Set the plot results to Active pore pressures:

g_o.Plots[-1].ResultType = g_o.ResultTypes.Soil.PActive

PlotType

For every plot you can also switch between the available visualisation options of the results:

Set the plot type to show the Contour lines instead of the Shadings:

g_o.Plots[-1].PlotType = "ContourLines"

Set the plot type to show the Coloured principal directions of a plot. Note that this is relevant to some of the plots, such as the stresses and pore pressure plots:

g_o.Plots[-1].PlotType = "PrincipalDirections"

In any case that a typo is made, the error message contains all allowed values for the command.

LegendSettings

This allows for changing the settings of the legend that is next to the plot. For example:

Change the number of intervals of the legend to 10:

g_o.Plots[-1].LegendSettings.Intervals = 10

Set the minimum value of the legend to -160 in project units:

g_o.Plots[-1].LegendSettings.MinValue = -160

MeshSettings

Various options about the current visualisation of the mesh are stored in the MeshSettings of a plot. For example:

Show the Phreatic level in the plot:

g_o.Plots[-1].MeshSettings.PhreaticLevel = True

Show the Fixities of the model:

g_o.Plots[-1].MeshSettings.Fixities = True

Hide the Cluster contours of the model:

g_o.Plots[-1].MeshSettings.ClusterContours = False

Phase and PhaseBehaviour

Every plot in PLAXIS Output has a Phase property, which corresponds to the phase for which the results are displayed.

By default, the Phase property is set to the phase selected in Input when the command is run to view the results, or it is set to the phase selected when a project is opened directly in Output.

In the GUI (Graphic User Interface) it is possible to switch to any other phase in the Output program using the dropdown box from the top bar, however, the internal Phase property of the plot remains unchanged.

You can query the Phase property using the echo command:

print(g_o.Plots[-1].Phase.echo())

To change the Phase property, you can directly set it using the command:

g_o.Plots[-1].Phase = g_o.Phase_x

Along with the Phase property, the PhaseBehaviour property allows for controlling to which phase the Phase property will be set for the current plot when used in automation.

The PhaseBehaviour property has two options:

• projectphase : current Plot object has the same phase as the one that will be used to export
• plotphase : current Plot object has its own phase, independent of the one that will be used to export

By default, the PhaseBehaviour is set to plotphase, which means that any change via the GUI does not make any change to the internal Phase property. The Phase property is used for export options via the command line and/or with remote scripting facilities (Python).

When dealing with a Python script and automation, it is recommended to change the PhaseBehaviour behaviour to projectphase using the command:

g_o.Plots[-1].PhaseBehaviour = "projectphase"

Other visualisation commands

Show/Hide

An Output plot can contain various objects (soil elements, plate elements, interfaces, loads, etc). In complex models where many objects are included, it is possible to hide or show them in order to make the plot easier for review. A few examples of the hide command are given below. Note that in order to show the objects you can use the show command in place of the hide command.

g_o.Plots[-1].hide(g_o.Plates)  # hides all plates in the visualisation
g_o.Plots[-1].hide(g_o.Plate_1_1)  #  only hides the specific plate in the visualisation
g_o.Plots[-1].hide(g_o.WaterLoads) # hides any external waterloads in the visualisation
g_o.Plots[-1].hide(g_o.LineLoads[0][1])  # only hides the line load, e.g. LineLoad_1_2

Zoom

In many cases to review the results, the focus needs to be adjusted to a smaller part of the model. On this occasion, the zoom command can be used.
A few examples of the zoom command  are given below:

g_o.Plots[-1].zoom()  # resets the zoom to show the whole model inside the Plot's size
g_o.Plots[-1].zoom(g_o.Plate_2)  # zooms to fit Plate_2 into the plot's visualisation
g_o.Plots[-1].zoom(0, 1)  # zooms the plot centering to point (0 1)
g_o.Plots[-1].zoom(0, 1, 2, 2)  # zooms the plot to a bounding box by points (0 1) and (2 2)

View (3D only)

The different viewpoints in PLAXIS 3D can be used to view the plot at a certain angle/side. A few examples of the view command are given below:

g_o.Plots[-1].view("bottom")  # standard view angles, options are: left, right, front, back, bottom, top
g_o.Plots[-1].view("default")  # change the view to the standard perspective view angle

Export command

After setting up the plot the final step is to use the command line to export the plot to an image file.
An example of the export command is given below:

g_o.Plots[-1].export(r"C:\Plaxis\Plots\my_plot.png", 1920, 1080)

This command will export the lastly created plot (Plots[-1]) to the location specified within the quotation marks using a width of 1920 and height of 1080 pixels.
Note that the width and height are optional parameters that can be omitted. If those parameters are not mentioned the program will export the plot using 2880 x 2160 pixels.

Note that the export command for Plots[-1] will use the value of the Phase property according to what the PhaseBehaviour dictates.

An alternative option is to export the plot to a PIL image object for further processing. This can be done by running the following command:

pil_image = g_o.Plots[-1].export()

Comments

• More examples are provided with the interactive Python Notebooks Scripting reference. The Scripting reference can be found under the Help menu in the PLAXIS Input program.
• More information on Output commands and objects can be found in our Command reference under the Help menu.
• Not all plot settings are automatically applied to the current plot PLAXIS Output is showing in the plot area
• Some plot settings require the presence of another setting to be applied correctly. For instance, this is the case of showing the results using the PrincipalDirections as a PlotType. For this, the ResultType should be set to a result that includes this visualisation, as the pore pressures or stresses do, for example.
• When multiple plots exist in PLAXIS Output, any changes to the plot settings will be applied to the plot specified. Plots[-1] always refer to the lastly created plot.
• A structural plot is considered a new plot and should be treated as such. In this case, Plot_1 will refer to the soil view (e.g. deformed mesh or deformations plot) and Plot_2 will refer to the structures view of the selected structural element.
  Here Plots[-1] refers to the structural plot.
• Not all commands are relevant for both PLAXIS 2D and PLAXIS 3D, e.g. ruler option is only available in PLAXIS 2D.