General Options Tab

The General Options tab is shown in Figure 1. In the Model Grid Characteristics frame the user may change a line format or color for a particular option. This is done by LMC on the picture box displaying the format. A format form will be displayed allowing the user to make the desired adjustments. The background color of the plot may similarly be adjusted in the corresponding frame.

The values that represent the blue and red ends of the color ramp can be specified. The direction of the color ramp depends whether the blue value is > or < the red value. If the Autoscale with View option is selected then the blue and red range will be reset to the minimum and maximum values for the current parameter that are within the current viewport.

The user has a number of options for displaying Color Ramps in ViewPlan and View3D. The typical choice is the temperature color ramp which shows blue for low values and red for high values. Many other color ramps are now available from the dropdown list. If the user selects Single Color from the dropdown then the color ramp will use a gradient based on the Single Color option selected beneath the drop down list.

The E/N Scale Modifiers is used to scale up one dimension in order to better view a model. This should only be used for models that only have one active cell across the dimension needing scaling. For example, viewing a test case model of a straight river 100 km long (I component) and 100 meters wide (J component). If viewed with a 1:1 horizontal scale it would be difficult to see the model cell colors. Using a scaling factor of 5 in this case would produce better visualizations.

The display of the horizontal scale is optional. The units are set in the Units dropdown list. The scale units are set independently of the current reporting units (Reporting Units).
A grid can be overlaid on the model using Coordinate Grid options. The desired delta X and delta Y spacing should be entered in the Easting and Northing fields, respectively. The label and line styles can be adjusted by pressing the Modify button. On the formatting form, the user can select the Link check box to assign the same format for both the X and Y.

The legend is always displayed by default, however, the user may choose to display or hide the legend with Show Legend check-box.

ViewPlan will display a north arrow when the Show box is selected in the North Arrow Options frame. The user may also rotate the arrow to align with the actual northerly direction by rotation the arrow clockwise by the number of degrees input. Furthermore, a Model Rotation option enables the user to rotate the model for display, thereby allowing it to fit better on the screen or printed page and improve visual alignment. As the model rotates, the north arrow automatically is updated based on the new rotation selected. While EE could previously rotate the model domain about a centroid, this new feature from release of EE7.2 changes the real co-ordinates in order to rotate the model.

Rotation is in the clockwise direction, however, the user may also enter a negative angle for counter-clockwise rotation. Note that by default the north arrow rotates with the model and may be manually adjusted if required. Figure 2 shows an example of a rotated model.