RES: [Paraview] RES: [vtkusers] Extracting an unstructured grid from Ensight case files...

Renato N. Elias rnelias at nacad.ufrj.br
Thu Mar 30 10:54:22 EST 2006


Hi Berk, 

here we go... I put a model partitioned in 4 parts with their case and SOS
files in

http://www.nacad.ufrj.br/~rnelias/paraview/sos/  

The files were written in Fortran BINARY in ENSIGHT6 format and were checked
with ens_checker utility with no warnings.

It seems that PV (2.2.1) can't read SOS files pointing to ENSIGHT6 cases,
only GOLD cases are supported because the server returned me the following
messages:

"Unexpected file type: 'master_server ensight6'"
"Error parsing the master server file"

I tried to cheat changing the "master_server ensight6" line to
"master_server gold" but it didn't work.

------------------------------------------------------------

The machines used in my tests are:

CLIENT:
Dell Precision 370 - P4 3.6Ghz, 4Gb/533Mhz/SDRAM, Nvidia Quadro Fx-3400,
Windows XP, Paraview 2.2.1 (distributed release)
Command line: pvclient -rc

SERVER:
SGI Altix - 16x Itanium-2, Red Hat advanced server kernel 2.4.21-sgi305r1,
Paraview 2.2.1 (compiled myself)
Command line: mpirun -np 4 pvserver -rc -ch=(client's IP)

------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks a lot

Renato N. Elias
===============================================
PhD student - http://www.nacad.ufrj.br/~rnelias
High Performance Computing Center
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
+55(21) 2562-8080 


-----Mensagem original-----
De: Berk Geveci [mailto:berk.geveci at gmail.com] 
Enviada em: quinta-feira, 30 de março de 2006 11:39
Para: Renato N. Elias
Cc: Randall Hand; paraview at paraview.org
Assunto: Re: [Paraview] RES: [vtkusers] Extracting an unstructured grid from
Ensight case files...

This sounds more like a bug in the ensight reader than a problem with your
code. Can you send me a very small example (including the sos file)?

-Berk

On 3/29/06, Renato N. Elias <rnelias at nacad.ufrj.br> wrote:
>
> I'm afraid of trying any other file format since the problem is mainly 
> due the Fortran. I really like the Ensight format, it seems me to be 
> the easiest and more powerful format among the formats supported by 
> PV, but these weirdness regarding the Fortran binary are really
annoying...
>
> I know that the "unformatted" data written by Fortran is something 
> weird for any other programming language, but what about the "binary" 
> format provided by some compilers?! What's wrong with this BINARY? My 
> files are all open as "BINARY" and not as "UNFORMATTED". I use the 
> Compaq and Intel compilers and both have support to "BINARY". PV 
> (2.2.1) is able to open the files but only in serial mode. When I try 
> to use a SOS file to open several pieces of model in parallel they 
> don't work. Can anyone point me the differences between this kind of 
> "BINARY" (not UNFORMATTED) and the binary provided by other languages, 
> such as C/C++? I think this "BINARY" should work as in any other language.
>
>
> Renato.
>
> ________________________________
>
> De: Randall Hand [mailto:randall.hand at gmail.com] Enviada em: 
> quarta-feira, 29 de março de 2006 17:22
> Para: Renato N. Elias
> Cc: paraview at paraview.org
> Assunto: Re: [vtkusers] Extracting an unstructured grid from Ensight 
> case files...
>
>
> Well, i'm about as far away from an Ensight guru as you can get, so 
> someone else will have to chime in on the specifics of the File Format &
Ensight.
>
> But there's a few issues with Binary & Fortran files.
>    1) Binary isn't really "cross platform compatible" .  If you do an 
> unformatted write on a big endian machine, you have to be careful to 
> byte swap it on a little-endian machine.  This can't be easily
autodetected, so
> alot of the readers have the ability to specify it.   Maybe this option is
> missing?
>    2) Fortran insists on writing Record Markers at the beginning & end 
> of each write.  Handy for integrity checking, royal PITA when you 
> start trying to use it in anything other than fortran.  Again, hard to 
> autodetect, so some of the readers give you the ability to specify C 
> or Fortran (like the Plot3d Reader).
>
> So you're kinda left to using other formats.  Personally, I would like 
> to see the new VTK Parallel XML formats extended to allow for putting 
> the data & the grid in separate files, but I doubt that will happen
anytime soon.
> Xmdf & Xdmf are an option, but not very ensight friendly (I think).
>
> Personally i've started writing things to VTK XML formats with the 
> compression enabled.  It's ascii, and the grid gets carried around, 
> but it's a minor annoyance for the stuff I'm doing. The ones where it 
> is a huge annoyance, we're using PLOT3D files so it's not an issue.
>
>
>
>
>
> On 3/29/06, Renato N. Elias <rnelias at nacad.ufrj.br> wrote:
>
>
>         Hi Randall, thanks for your advice...
>
>         This subject has been drive me crazy!!!
>
>         - I can't read SOS files since they are written by Fortran 
> routines;
>
>         - I can't save transient data in VTK since VTK does not have 
> support to
>         transient data... ok, it can be overcame through PVD files;
>
>         - I can't save grid and results separetely... Ok, I can save 
> them together
>         but it would give unnecessary data being replicated;
>
>         - I tried the Stephane approach (opening the file as 
> unstructured and saving
>         with only one write) but the number of parameters passed to 
> the "write"
>         function is greater than the limit that the function supports 
> to write;
>
>         - I open the file (ENSIGHT6) as binary (my Fortran has support 
> to
> it) but PV
>         only read my files in serial modes (SOS does not work)
>
>         - Ensight Gold binary written by Fortran does not work as well
>
>         - Ok, Ensight format in ASCII works fine but it would give me 
> huge and very
>         slow files...
>
>         - Ok, there's a Fortran/VTK library distributed with PV, but 
> I'd have to
>         install VTK or port the library to any machine I use (and I'm 
> not a system
>         administrator to do it).
>
>         - I only get success when reading Ensight6 Fortran/Binary data 
> in serial
>         mode.
>
>         I'm feeling that I (and other Fortran programmers) have no
choice...
> I know
>         that PV and VTK have different Ensight readers, but why do the 
> VTK readers
>         work with my files and in PV it is not always possible? 
> Furthermore, how can
>         Ensight read Fortran unstructured/binary and C/C++ files without
any
>         problem? Within the files have a "C binary" and a "Fortran binary"
>         indication, can't it be used to guide the right way of reading 
> the file?
>
>         I don't know what I should do... I was writing this script to 
> convert a
>         bunch of results that I have stored but I'm almost giving up 
> and going
>         through write a C writer for my Fortran programs 
> (unfortunately, it won't
>         solve the problem of my results stored - only if I do another file
>         converter)
>
>         Regards
>
>         Renato N. Elias
>         ===============================================
>         PhD student - http://www.nacad.ufrj.br/~rnelias
>         High Performance Computing Center
>         Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
>         Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
>         +55(21) 2562-8080
>
>
>         ________________________________
>
>         De: Randall Hand [mailto: randall.hand at gmail.com]
>         Enviada em: quarta-feira, 29 de março de 2006 16:23
>         Para: Renato N. Elias
>         Cc: vtkusers at vtk.org; paraview at paraview.org
>         Assunto: Re: [vtkusers] Extracting an unstructured grid from 
> Ensight case
>         files...
>
>
>         Nice to see someone else using Tcl/Tk for file conversion :)  
> I do it all
>         the time here.
>
>         Sadly, you've run into the #1 problem with VTK formats, the 
> Grid & Data must
>         remain together ( AFAIK, someone please correct me if I'm wrong)..
> If you
>         want to separate the two, then you have little choice than to 
> switch to
>         another format.
>
>
>         On 3/29/06, Renato N. Elias <rnelias at nacad.ufrj.br> wrote:
>
>
>                 Hi there,
>
>                 Since I'm a poor Fortran programmer that can't make 
> the Ensight's
>         binary
>                 format working in Paraview properly, I've been writing 
> a TCL/VTK
>         script to
>                 convert from Ensight case files to Paraview/VTK format 
> (and I hope
>         it will
>                 work out my problems...).
>
>                 A have the following situation to cover:
>
>                 1- Model partitioned in several case files (sometimes 
> I run problems
>         in
>                 parallel/MPI)
>                 2- Each case file has its geometry and results files 
> associated
>                 3- The geometry does not change in time
>
>                 Then, I was thinking about do the following:
>
>                 1- Read each case file
>                 2- Export the Unstructured grid through the
>         vtkXMLUnstructuredGridWriter
>                 3- Export the results for each time step through the
>         vtkXMLDataSetWriter
>                 4- Assembly the files through a PVD file (Paraview 
> format) as is
>         done with
>                 the case file
>
>                 My problem is:
>
>                 * * * How do I export unstructured grids and results 
> separetely? * *
>         *
>
>                 I'm using the following script, but it's only able to save
>         grid+results in
>                 the same file. Note that it's not good since I'll be 
> replicating
>         grid that
>                 does not change in time.
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------
>                 package require vtk
>
>                 # loading command line arguments
>                 set arch [lindex $argv 0]
>                 set nprocs  [lindex $argv 1]
>
>                 # building the case file names
>                 append arch "_"
>                 append arch $nprocs
>                 append arch "_"
>
>                 # loop over the case files that will be read and saved 
> in vtk format
>
>                 for {set i 0} {$i < $nprocs} {incr i} {
>
>                     set filename $arch
>                     if {$i < 10} { append filename "0" }
>                     append filename $i
>                     set casefile $filename
>                     append casefile ".case"
>                     puts " Reading Ensight casefile $casefile"
>
>                     vtkGenericEnSightReader reader
>                        reader SetCaseFileName $casefile
>                        reader Update
>
>                     vtkXMLUnstructuredGridWriter vtkfile
>                       vtkfile SetInput [ reader GetOutput ]
>                       vtkfile SetFileName "$filename.vtk"
>                       puts " Exporting VTK unified file..."
>                       vtkfile Write
>
>                     reader  Delete
>                     vtkfile Delete
>                 }
>                 wm withdraw .
>                 Exit
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                 Thanks for any help
>
>                 Renato N. Elias
>                 ===============================================
>                 PhD student - http://www.nacad.ufrj.br/~rnelias 
> <http://www.nacad.ufrj.br/~rnelias>
>                 High Performance Computing Center
>                 Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
>                 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
>                 +55(21) 2562-8080
>
>                 _______________________________________________
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>
>
>
>
>         --
>         Randall Hand
>         Visualization Scientist,
>         ERDC-MSRC Vicksburg, MS
>         Homepage: http://www.yeraze.com <http://www.yeraze.com>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Randall Hand
> Visualization Scientist,
> ERDC-MSRC Vicksburg, MS
> Homepage: http://www.yeraze.com
>
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