Simcenter Testing Solutions Simcenter Testlab: Cursor Tips and Tricks

Direct YouTube link: https://youtu.be/gAEzSbJ7K2c

*** For even more display tips, see the Simcenter Testlab Display Seminar article ***

New to Simcenter Testlab (formerly called LMS Test.Lab)? Here are some cursor tips and tricks to get you started:

Index:
1. Adding a Cursor Readout to a Display
2. Cursor Values and Excel
3. Cursor Properties: Colors, Thickness, Tool Tip
4. Moving the Cursor
5. Moving to Maximum
6. Snap to Data Values

1. Adding a Cursor Readout to a Display

To add a cursor to an existing display, right click in the display while holding down the Control key (Figure 1) and select “Add Single Cursor -> X”. Right clicking without the control key requires clicking on the white background area of the graph, which is not always easy to do if there is a lot of data in the plot.
 

Figure 1: While holding down CTRL-key, right click in display and choose “Add Single Cursor -> X” to add display to cursor.

A cursor should appear in the display. Click and drag on the cursor to move it from left to right.

To see both the X and Y cursor values, select a curve by clicking on it, and a flag will be shown at the intersection of the data and the cursor showing the Y value (Figure 2).
 

Figure 2: Click on data to see cursor readout at intersection of data and cursor

Small black squares appear on the data curve to indicate it is selected. Clicking on the curve again (after it was previously selected) will deselect it.

Another method to show cursor X and Y values is to add a cursor legend to the display. Right click in the display (while holding down Control-Key) and choose “Cursor Legend -> Auto” to add a cursor legend to the display (Figure 3).
 

Figure 3: Right click in display and choose “Cursor Legend -> Auto”.

A cursor legend is added to the display. Values for all curves will be shown in the legend. The legend can be moved by clicking and dragging on the top line of the legend.

2. Cursor Values and Excel

Values can be exported to Excel by right clicking on the cursor legend and choosing “Copy Values” as shown in Figure 4.
 

Figure 4: To put cursor values in Excel, right click on the cursor legend and choose "Copy Values" and paste in Excel.

The cursor values in the legend can then be pasted into Excel.

3. Cursor Properties: Colors, Thickness, Tool Tip

Right click on the cursor and select “Properties” to change (Figure 5):

• Cursor linestyle and color
• Number of decimals used in cursor readout
• Tooltip style
• Add a label to the cursor

Figure 5: Right click on cursor and select “Properties”

After making changes in the Cursor Properties menu and pressing OK, the cursor could appear as shown in Figure 6 below:
 

Figure 6: Cursor appearance after changes to linestyle, thickness, tool tip, decimal places, etc.

The default appearance of a cursor can be set by selecting "Options" and using the "Cursors" tab in resulting menu (Figure 7).
 

Figure 7: Default cursor properties can be set under "Options -> Cursors Tab".

After changing the defaults, the layout must be saved.  More information in the article: Simcenter Testlab Display Layouts.

4. Moving the Cursor

Aside from clicking and dragging the cursor, it can be moved in several different ways.

For example, double click on the cursor and type in the desired position of the cursor. It will move to this position (Figure 8).
 

Figure 8: Double click directly on cursor to type in desired cursor position manually.

One can also use the right and left arrow keys on the keyboard to move the cursor (Figure 9).
 

Figure 9: Right and left arrow keys control last selected cursor

If there is more than one Single X Cursor, the arrow keys move the cursor that was last selected. The last selected cursor has extra arrow symbols at the top to denote this as seen above (Figure 9).

5. Moving to Maximum

The cursor can be moved to the maximum value of the data as shown in Figure 10.
 

Figure 10: To move cursor to maximum of data, click on desired curve, then right click on cursor and choose “Move to Global Maximum”

If there are multiple curves in the display, first select the curve to move to the maximum. Do this by clicking on the curve once to select it. Small black squares will appear on the curve to indicate that it is selected.

Then right click on the cursor and select “Move to Global Maximum” as shown in Figure 10. If the menu is insensitive, a curve in the display was probably not selected.

6. Snap to Data Values

When the cursor is being moved, it will float between data point and read interpolated data values between actual data points (Figure 11).
 

Figure 11: Cursor reads interpolated value between actual data points.

If one desires that the cursor only read actual data values, right click on the cursor and choose “Snap to data points” as shown in Figure 12.
 

Figure 12: Right click on cursor and choose “Snap to Data Values” to make cursor only display actual data points.

Because two different curves in a display may have different increments, it is necessary to select the curve for the Snap function. This is done by clicking on the curve once. Small black squares appear on the curve to indicate it is selected.

Conclusion

Questions? Email peter.schaldenbrand@siemens.com or contact Siemens Support Center.

Simcenter Testlab Display tips:

• Index of Testing Knowledge Articles
• Cool Cursor Contest!
• Simcenter Testlab: Display Layouts
• Simcenter Testlab: Customized Legend Text
• Simcenter Testlab: Curve Linestyles
• Simcenter Testlab: Cursor Tips and Tricks
• Simcenter Testlab: Coupled Cursors and Coupled Limits
• Simcenter Testlab: Interactive order cursor!
• Simcenter Testlab: Coupled Processing Cursor
• Simcenter Testlab: Point Cloud Display
• Simcenter Testlab: Order Cursor vs Time in Colormap
• Simcenter Testlab: The "Double X" cursor
• Simcenter Testlab: Automatic Peak-Valley Cursor
• Simcenter Testlab: Harmonic Cursors
• Simcenter Testlab: XY Graph
• Simcenter Testlab Orbit Plots
• Simcenter Testlab: Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts
• Simcenter Testlab: Colormap Displays
• Simcenter Testlab: Matrix-Heatmap Display
• Simcenter Testlab: Geometry Display
• Simcenter Testlab: Overlay Mode Shapes
• Simcenter Testlab: Locked and Scrolling Data Comparison
• Simcenter Testlab Display Seminar
• Simcenter Testlab Display YouTube Playlist