Abaqus/CAE evenly divides the range between the minimum and maximum contour values into intervals. You can customize the number of intervals and whether the intervals are represented by discrete or continuous colors. By default, there are 12 discretely colored intervals. Figure 44–8 shows a banded-type contour plot with nine uniform contour intervals on the left and with continuous contours on the right.
When you represent contour plots using discrete intervals, you can also control the type of progression between interval values. If you choose a uniform interval type, Abaqus/CAE creates a uniform, arithmetic progression between the interval values; if you choose a logarithmic interval type, Abaqus/CAE creates a logarithmic progression between interval values. In addition, you can create a new set of contour intervals with a custom progression that includes any values that you want to include. You can also provide just a few interval values and interpolate additional intervals between the values you define. The interval values you provide must appear in descending order from top to bottom in the Edit Intervals dialog box.
If you select a custom interval, Abaqus/CAE overrides the contour limits specified in the Limits area of the Contour Plot Options dialog box and uses the maximum and minimum interval values as the custom contour limits. See “Setting contour limits,” Section 44.5.7, for more information.
The contour legend, if active, will include two more intervals than the number you choose. Abaqus/CAE adds intervals at the top and bottom of the legend to indicate any values that exceed the contour plot limits. For more information on the contour legend, see “Customizing the legend,” Section 56.1.
This section describes how to customize the contour intervals and how to edit the contour intervals that you use.
To customize the contour intervals:
Locate the Contour Intervals options.
From the main menu bar, select Options
Contour; then click the Basic tab in the dialog box that appears. The Contour Intervals options are on the left side of the page.
Choose Continuous or Discrete to request continuous or discrete contour intervals, respectively.
Continuous intervals are available only for banded-type contours. Abaqus represents your contour values in a smooth, non-delineated color spectrum.
When you choose Discrete intervals, the Contour Interval slider becomes available.
For Discrete intervals, perform the following tasks:
Choose the number of intervals by dragging the Contour Intervals slider to the number of intervals (between 2 and 24) that you want.
Choose one of the following selections from the Interval type list:
Select Uniform to use an arithmetic progression of values in the contour plot.
Select Log to use a logarithmic progression of values in the contour plot.
Select User-defined to use a customized set of values in the contour plot.
To customize interval values for the User-defined interval type, click 
.
The Edit Intervals dialog box appears with a default set of contour intervals that you can modify in any of the following ways:
Edit any interval value by clicking its row and entering a new value. You must provide interval values in descending order from top to bottom in the dialog box.
Click Insert Before or Insert After to insert another interval before or after the selected interval. New intervals are added without values, so you must supply interval values either by entering them directly in the appropriate row or by interpolating their values.
Click Delete to remove the selected intervals from the set.
Click Interpolate to calculate interpolated interval values for all blank intervals in the set. Abaqus/CAE interpolates values using an arithmetic progression.
Click Clear Values to clear the values for the selected intervals.
Click Apply to implement your changes in the viewport.
The contours and, if active, the contour legend in the current viewport change to reflect the interval options you have selected.
By default, your changes are saved for the duration of the session and will affect all subsequent contour plots. If you want to retain your changes for subsequent sessions, save them to a file. For more information, see “Saving customizations for use in subsequent sessions,” Section 55.1.1.
