PDEStudio Control Panel Overview

The PDEStudio interface is driven by a single, reactive control panel. Rather than hiding settings in nested pop-up windows, it is one vertically scrolling dashboard, divided into four regions.

1. File Operations & Execution

The top region handles serialization and execution (details: File Operations).

• Load, Export & Presets: The filename box is shared by all file operations. Type a file name and click Export to save the figure or an animation; type a path or just a file name of a saved CSV and click the load button (or drop the CSV onto the window) to recreate a saved state. Save Presets / Clear Presets save and reset the look; while the editor shows the Simulation category, the same buttons read Save Sim Preset / Reset Simulation and act on the physics instead (see Presets).
• Reactive Triggers: The execution buttons (Run Simulation, Apply Layout, Update Plot) are tied to a background state machine. When a change requires a backend recalculation or a structural layout change, the corresponding button turns yellow to show that the plot is out of sync.

2. Advanced Editors

Granular control over the simulation and the look (details: Advanced Editors).

• Parameter & UI Editor: A three-tier dropdown system (Category → Scope → Parameter) with direct access to the shared and method parameters, the sweep, the active methods, every UI style, the presets and the display names, without writing code.
• Method Controls: Activate or deactivate numerical methods or analytical references of your SimulationConfig on the fly.

3. Rendering Configuration

The red-titled sections dictate how the data is projected onto the screen (details: Rendering).

• Layout Options: Structural changes such as switching from 1D lines to 3D surfaces, legend placement or multi-plot comparisons. Changes here require a click on "Apply Layout" to rebuild the plot grid.
• Plot Options: The independent axes (X, Y, Z), the dependent field (U-Axis) and its component. Changes here update the data without rebuilding the plot window.

4. Exploration & Playback

Interacting with the data (details: Exploration).

• Sliders: One slider per swept parameter and per physical dimension, scaled to the values of the active datasets. Text-valued sweeps (e.g. scheme names) get index sliders that display the swept value.
• Camera & Animation: A one-click animation player that sweeps the chosen Anim Target. Lock Camera freezes the view (2D limits, or 3D azimuth, elevation and bounds) for perfectly stable video exports.