# Top tips and hidden gems **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Tags:** tips, suggestions\ **Created:** [February 4, 2022, 6:29pm UTC](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/top-tips-and-hidden-gems/202 "2022-02-04T18:29:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jmswdmn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/51bf81/32.png) [@jmswdmn](https://forum.itascainternational.com/u/jmswdmn)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2022, 6:29pm UTC](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/top-tips-and-hidden-gems/202/1 "2022-02-04T18:29:46Z")
Recently I’ve changed a couple of settings that make a huge difference on a day-to-day basis: - was notified about the automatic save state file compression through _Tools \> General \> Compress new save files and result files_ - set up my editor in a pseudo dark mode through _Tools \> Editor_ and altering the background and syntax colours What other top tips, setting changes or not-so-obvious functionality would others recommend utilising, which you take for granted once enabled? ---
**Author:** ![Kh.Mohammadamini](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/forum.itascainternational.com/kh.mohammadamini/32/71_2.png) [@Kh.Mohammadamini](https://forum.itascainternational.com/u/Kh.Mohammadamini)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 7:52pm UTC](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/top-tips-and-hidden-gems/202/2 "2022-02-08T19:52:25Z")
It is just a view setting so what is your question? Changing the display settings will not be a problem. ---
**Author:** ![jhazzard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4af34b/32.png) [@jhazzard](https://forum.itascainternational.com/u/jhazzard)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 8:58pm UTC](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/top-tips-and-hidden-gems/202/3 "2022-02-08T20:58:37Z")
Everyone probably knows this one already, but clicking on a command in a data file and hitting Ctrl-space to see the keywords is super-handy. Or hitting F1 to see the help. ---
**Author:** ![rpeterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e99b99/32.png) [@rpeterson](https://forum.itascainternational.com/u/rpeterson)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2022, 1:55am UTC](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/top-tips-and-hidden-gems/202/4 "2022-03-03T01:55:03Z")
Use “Run Selection” to run a snippet of code from a data file. Right-click the selected code and choose “Run Selection” (Ctrl-Shift-E). I also appreciate being able to use the up/down arrows when the command line is selected to scroll through recently typed (and run) commands. ---
**Author:** ![ddegagne](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/forum.itascainternational.com/ddegagne/32/55_2.png) [@ddegagne](https://forum.itascainternational.com/u/ddegagne)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 11:05pm UTC](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/top-tips-and-hidden-gems/202/5 "2022-03-11T23:05:17Z")
Did you know you can add custom colors to your model plots? Just select a color from the Color-List for a Plot-Item to bring up the color settings dialog. Then right-click one of the empty color boxes and enter the color’s Hex # or RGB code. You can also save this to your custom color list (before clicking OK) for future use. ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/uploads/itasca/original/1X/6b70ee61020625c45c7a79eaea1247ebd82a4e5e.png) ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/uploads/itasca/original/1X/27f613065d76bff6df7f684540f906c926177321.png) ---
**Author:** ![jhazzard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4af34b/32.png) [@jhazzard](https://forum.itascainternational.com/u/jhazzard)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 3:03pm UTC](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/top-tips-and-hidden-gems/202/6 "2022-03-25T15:03:37Z")
I just learned a new one. Fish function _file.all_. See here [file.all — FLAC3D 7.0 documentation (itascacg.com)](http://docs.itascacg.com/flac3d700/common/fish/doc/fish_manual/fish_fish/file_utilities/fish_file.all.html#file.all) You can dump a list to a file with a single line. For example, if you have a list of strings called _lines_, you can just do this: [file.all(‘test.txt’,‘text’) = lines] Even better, you can use splitting to easily dump out data. For example, if you want to dump all gridpoint pore pressures to a file, you can do this: [file.all(‘test.txt’,‘text’) = gp.pp(::gp.list)] ---
**Author:** ![jmswdmn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/51bf81/32.png) [@jmswdmn](https://forum.itascainternational.com/u/jmswdmn)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2022, 5:34pm UTC](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/top-tips-and-hidden-gems/202/7 "2022-10-21T17:34:35Z")
> [@How to zoom and pan effectively in history plots](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/how-to-zoom-and-pan-effectively-in-history-plots/787): > > Zooming into a region of a history plot is straight forward, however, the only way I know to zoom out is to expand the x-axis menu toggle auto minimum toggle auto maximum expand the y-axis menue toggle auto minimum toggle auto maximum. 6 steps just to reset the view? I must be missing something. Similarly, is it possible to pan by clicking and dragging? > [@How to zoom and pan effectively in history plots](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/how-to-zoom-and-pan-effectively-in-history-plots/787/3): > > click on the plot while holding the Ctrl button pressed. ---
**Author:** ![mahfuz99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee7513/32.png) [@mahfuz99](https://forum.itascainternational.com/u/mahfuz99)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2022, 2:33pm UTC](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/top-tips-and-hidden-gems/202/8 "2022-11-16T14:33:46Z")
Would you please help me by providing a information that how to place my query/ question in this forum ---
**Author:** ![jmswdmn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/51bf81/32.png) [@jmswdmn](https://forum.itascainternational.com/u/jmswdmn)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2022, 3:10pm UTC](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/top-tips-and-hidden-gems/202/9 "2022-11-16T15:10:54Z")
Read the instructions in the pinned [welcome thread](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/welcome-to-discourse/7). You need to supply a valid software license to be given access to create posts on the forum. ---
**Author:** ![jmswdmn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/51bf81/32.png) [@jmswdmn](https://forum.itascainternational.com/u/jmswdmn)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2025, 4:47pm UTC](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/top-tips-and-hidden-gems/202/10 "2025-02-04T16:47:28Z")
Selfishly quoting these other threads here so I can find them again… > [@Export your split workspace plots as a single bitmap](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/export-your-split-workspace-plots-as-a-single-bitmap/1861): > > You can export all your arrayed split screen plots a single bitmap (PNG) by right-clicking on any plot, selecting Export, and then the Workspace to bitmap … option. You can specify the image size. > [@Plotting Gridpoint Groups](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/plotting-gridpoint-groups/1862): > > In FLAC3D and FLAC2D you can plot contours of gridpoint data (e.g. displacement) and zone groups, however there is currently no built-in way to show gridpoint labels (e.g. groups). However, you can do this by creating and plotting user-defined (UD) scalars. See simple example below. model new zone create brick zone gridpoint group 'top' range pos-z 10 fish def plot\_gps loop foreach gp gp.list uds = data.scalar.create(gp.pos(gp)) data.scalar.group(uds) = gp.group(gp) end\_loop end [… > [@Some Tips & Tricks for 3DEC v9](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/some-tips-tricks-for-3dec-v9/1855): > > A few tips & tricks for all you 3DEC v9 users: (1) User-interface Information Box In addition to the fixed Information display, you can use CTRL-Q to query object data via an information box in a plot that updates based on the cursor position. The query box can be frozen in place via CTRL-C, and if you prefer you can also copy the information from it. (2) Join by Contact Use the BLOCK JOIN-BY-CONTACT command to prevent unjoining of construction joints when cutting across them to…