Partial Differential Equation Toolbox

The Menus

There are 11 different pull-down menus in the GUI. See The Graphical User Interface, for a more detailed description of the menus and the dialog boxes:

• File menu. From the File menu you can Open and Save model M-files that contain a command sequence that reproduces your modeling session. You can also print the current graphics and exit the GUI.
• Edit menu. From the Edit menu you can cut, clear, copy, and paste the solid objects. There is also a Select All option.
• Options menu. The Options menu contains options such as toggling the axis grid, a "snap-to-grid" feature, and zoom. You can also adjust the axis limits and the grid spacing, select the application mode, and refresh the GUI.
• Draw menu. From the Draw menu you can select the basic solid objects such as circles and polygons. You can then draw objects of the selected type using the mouse. From the Draw menu you can also rotate the solid objects and export the geometry to the MATLAB main workspace.
• Boundary menu. From the Boundary menu you access a dialog box where you define the boundary conditions. Additionally, you can label edges and subdomains, remove borders between subdomains, and export the decomposed geometry and the boundary conditions to the workspace.
• PDE menu. The PDE menu provides a dialog box for specifying the PDE, and there are menu options for labeling subdomains and exporting PDE coefficients to the workspace.
• Mesh menu. From the Mesh menu you create and modify the triangular mesh. You can initialize, refine, and jiggle the mesh, undo previous mesh changes, label nodes and triangles, display the mesh quality, and export the mesh to the workspace.
• Solve menu. From the Solve menu you solve the PDE. You can also open a dialog box where you can adjust the solve parameters, and you can export the solution to the workspace.
• Plot menu. From the Plot menu you can plot a solution property. A dialog box lets you select which property to plot, which plot style to use and several other plot parameters. If you have recorded a movie (animation) of the solution, you can export it to the workspace.
• Window menu. The Window menu lets you select any currently open MATLAB figure window. The selected window is brought to the front.
• Help menu. The Help menu provides a brief help window.

Using the PDE Toolbox Graphical User Interface

The Toolbar