Reading a Kratos result in KKSS

The tutorial pages link here instead of repeating these notes. Control names are the ones Post-Processing shows.

Open results

In the Problemtype sidebar, Open results opens the case's latest VTK output in a new Post-Processing tab. It reads the vtk_output folder beside the generated case and reports No results in vtk_output/ yet until the solver has written a step. A finished run opens its newest step; a run that did not finish cleanly opens its last complete step, because its final file may be truncated. If a tab already shows that series, the button moves that tab to the newest step.

A coupled case opens one participant's series. For the other, choose File ▸ New Mesh Tab, then File ▸ Open… (Ctrl+O), because Open alone replaces the focused tab's document.

The Field panel

Click Field in the viewer toolbar. The panel holds, from top to bottom:

• Variable: the field to draw.
• Modes: Contour (a colour map on the mesh), Quiver (arrows for a vector field), Isosurface (a scalar field), Deformed (warps the mesh by a vector field) and Threshold (shows only cells in a value window). Modes combine.
• Component (contour, isosurface and threshold) and Unit, which changes the display only.
• Colormap and Range. Typing a minimum and maximum fixes the colour scale; ⟲ (Reset to data range) restores the data's range.
• Log scale, Bands (Continuous, or discrete bands) and Show scalar bar in scene, which keeps the legend in a screenshot.

The timeline

A time series shows Previous frame, Play / Pause, Next frame and a scrubber. Each saved output frame is one step. The label reads Step 6 (3/12), the step number from the file name and the frame's position; the status bar shows frame 3 / 12 · step 6. Opening one file of a Kratos series (<prefix>_<rank>_<step>.vtk) builds the timeline from its siblings, and a folder still being written keeps extending it. Resample reads the series at chosen times and can export them without changing the source.

Clipping

The CLIP controls in the bottom dock switch the clip plane on and off, choose X, Y, Z or Free (which shows raw normal inputs), and set its position. The position is a fraction from 0 to 1 of the model's extent along the axis; the slider's 0 to 100 is the same fraction in percent. The cut face is filled at the plane. It takes the active field's colours only while Contour is on, and is neutral grey otherwise.

Deformed shape

Deformed is a display warp. Choose the vector field in Deform by (for a structural result, DISPLACEMENT), then raise Warp scale, which multiplies it for display up to 1000×. Solver displacements are often far smaller than the model, so the scale makes them visible. Field values and the saved file do not change.

Quiver and streamlines

Quiver draws arrows for a vector field, coloured by magnitude. Advanced ▸ Streamlines… traces steady streamlines of a nodal vector field from seed points, a line, a plane (filled with Use clip plane) or a SubModelPart. The trace runs in a worker with per-seed progress, and Cancel keeps the partial trace. The streamlines follow the current frame; they are not pathlines through time.

Inspect and probes

Inspect turns clicks into probes: click a node, element or condition to read its id, block, SubModelPart membership and every field value. Measure reports the distance between two picks and its Δx, Δy and Δz. Inspect ▸ Probe line plots a nodal field against distance between two node picks and can export CSV. Inspect ▸ Plot over time samples the picked entity's field across every step.

Plots

Plots opens the plot pane for that mesh tab. It docks below or beside the mesh, and hiding it keeps its curves. Add histories with Inspect ▸ Plot over time, Add points from mesh or a probe line. A filename step is not a timestamp, so enter Physical times and a Time unit to plot in time. Missing values appear as gaps, not zeros. In the plot workspace (File ▸ Scientific Plot Builder…), Save recipe and Load recipe store a plot as version 1 JSON, with paths relative to the recipe file.

Derived fields and layers

The Variables section turns a formula over coordinates and fields, a distance, or a global reduction such as max or mean into a new field. It appears in the Field panel and can be used by name in other formulas. View Layers holds named, view-only groups of blocks, SubModelParts or picks. Hiding a layer never edits the mesh, and promoting one creates a real SubModelPart.

Monitors, convergence and batches

• Run status: the Problemtype status line reads Starting…, Running — step N…, then Finished. or a stop or failure message. While the solver runs, Run case reads Stop run, and File ▸ Stop Kratos Run stops it.
• Convergence: Review run on the Home screen reads the run's convergence record (kkss-convergence-v2.jsonl), draws its plots and reports solve-step outcomes; Export review writes the report as offline JSON or HTML. Without a versioned record, convergence is unavailable, and process completion never establishes it. The mesh__case_convergence tool reads the same record.
• Monitors: for a field of a time series, Inspect offers Monitor, which saves it as a named monitor of the case; the result must belong to a generated or run case. mesh__case_monitors lists, sets, removes and evaluates monitors.
• Batches: in the Edit section, tick Queue operations for one apply, then Apply queued steps runs the queue in order, each step undoable. Save queue… stores the queue as a JSON recipe, and Load into queue… appends a recipe to it. Save operations… stores applied operations as a JSON recipe, and Load operations… loads and replays one. The mesh__mesh_batch_transform tool applies a named preset from .kratos/recipes (recipePreset); dryRun plans without writing.