Configure Heatmap Colors
The heatmap overlays a color gradient on solver results to visualize displacement magnitude across the design. You can choose what the colors represent and how the color range is calculated.
Toggle the heatmap
Select a solver result in the sidebar, then click the Heatmap button in the results toolbar (the secondary bar at the top of the viewport). The button highlights when the heatmap is active.
- Left-click toggles the heatmap on or off.
- Hover over the button (or right-click it) to open the color settings dropdown without toggling the heatmap.
When the heatmap is off, the result mesh renders without color coding.
Color By
The Color By section of the dropdown controls which displacement component drives the color gradient:
| Option | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Magnitude | Total displacement magnitude at each point (the default). |
| X Component | Displacement in the X direction only (absolute value). |
| Y Component | Displacement in the Y direction only (absolute value). |
Switching the color component updates the heatmap immediately. The Color Scale panel values and range adjust to reflect the selected component.
Color Scale modes
The Color Scale section controls how the min/max of the color gradient are determined:
| Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
| 90th Percentile | The top of the gradient maps to the 90th-percentile displacement value. This clips extreme outliers and produces the best visual contrast in most cases. This is the default. |
| Absolute Max | The top of the gradient maps to the single largest displacement value in the mesh. No clipping -- the full data range is shown. |
| Manual Range | You specify the min and max values yourself. Useful for comparing two results on the same color scale. |
You can change the scale mode in two places:
- The Color By / Color Scale dropdown on the Heatmap toolbar button.
- The Color Scale panel -- click the mode label at the bottom of the panel to cycle through modes.
Color Scale panel
Click the Scale button in the results toolbar to show or hide the floating Color Scale panel. This panel displays:
- A vertical color gradient bar showing the current color mapping.
- Max, Mid, and Min value labels alongside the gradient.
- The active scale mode label at the bottom. Click it to cycle through 90th Percentile, Absolute Max, and Manual Range.
The gradient bar resizes when you drag the panel edges.
Related pages
- Deformation Animation -- animate the displacement field the heatmap colors.
- Interpret Results -- what the density field and displacement values mean.
- Convergence Panel -- track solver metrics over iterations.