Changing the Appearance of Decimals

When you browse large amounts of data, it may seem cumbersome to view values in their lengthy double-precision format. For easier data viewing, change the decimal display.

注The decimal value is not necessarily the actual value. To check the actual value, hover with the mouse pointer for the tooltip or, where applicable, click in the value field.

In the current version of Simcenter STAR-CCM+, this feature only works with the Properties window value entries and the tabular data of a Design Manager study. For details about properties entries, see Common Editing Techniques. For details about using tabular data with Design Manager, see Creating Manual Designs and Tabulating Designs.

Choose from a number of standard formats, or create your own.

  1. Select Tools > Options.
  2. In the options dialog, select the Services > Environment node.
  3. To set the Decimal Display Format property, do either of the following:

    • Use the drop-down list of the property:

      1. Select one of the following options (for these examples, Pi = 3.141592653589793).

        • None: the full double-precision numerical values are displayed; Pi is displayed as 3.141592653589793.
        • Short: 0.###; Pi is displayed as 3.142.
        • Long: 0.#######; Pi is displayed as 3.1415927.
        • Short Fixed Decimal: 0.000; Pi is displayed as 3.140.
        • Long Fixed Decimal: 0.0000000; Pi is displayed as 3.1400000.
        • Short Scientific: 0.###E00; Pi is displayed as 3.142e00 (converted to lower case).
        • Long Scientific: 0.#######E00; Pi is displayed as 3.1415927e00 (converted to lower case).
        • Custom: the number of digits is determined by the specified custom settings. For example, if the Minimum Number of Digits is set to 6 and the Number of Significant Digits is set to 5, Pi is displayed as 3.1416.

        Scientific notation is applied when the value is greater than or equal to 100,000, or less than the decimal places of the format:

        • Pi*100000.0 displayed in Short format appears as 3.142e05.
        • Pi/10000.0 displayed in Short format appears as 3.142e-04.

      2. To preview the format, click (Custom Editor), and use the Decimal Display Format dialog.



        In the Preview group box, compare the full value of the example in the Number to be Formatted text box to the value under Number With Format Applied. You can also enter your own value as the Number to be Formatted.

        注Settings in the dialog such as Precision and Style are available for editing only when you select Custom in the drop-down list of the property or the dialog.
    • Create a customized decimal display format option:
      1. Set the Decimal Display Format property to Custom in the drop-down list.
      2. Click (Custom Editor). In the Decimal Display Format dialog, specify the settings that you want for the custom option:
        • To indicate whether the values are positive or negative, activate the Print Sign checkbox.
        • To include zeros at the left of the labels (for a uniform number of digits), activate the Zero Padding checkbox.
        • To specify the minimum number of digits overall, and the number of digits after the decimal point, use the text boxes in the Precision group box. Press <Enter> after making an entry in each of these text boxes.
        • In the Style group box, select a style from the drop-down list:
          • Best Fit—this default option presents the data in a visually optimal manner.
          • Decimal—this option displays the full decimal values based on the entry in the Number of Decimal Digits text box.
          • Scientific—this option displays the values in scientific notation. To use an uppercase “e”, activate the Use Upper Case checkbox.
        • In the Preview group box, preview the effect of the format.
      3. Click OK.