[Paraview] paraview won't read plot3D files

Rick Burnes rick.burnes at mchsi.com
Thu Mar 18 22:05:16 EDT 2010 

Here is the plot3D ASCII grid file header section:

      3
    121    40   121
    121    41   121
    121    42   121

The first row containing "3" indicates the number of blocks.
The second through 4th rows give the dimensions of each block.

Upon reviewing the multiple test files I have generated I found I was  
originally incorrect when I thought that paraview was interpreting the  
geometry of the ASCII plot3D grid file differently than tecplot.

If you look at the plot3D User Manual, I am following the  
specification for a 3D, whole, multigrid plot3D grid file and solution  
file (see pages 164 and 165) .  There are three blocks in this case.   
Up until this afternoon I have been generating double-precision files,  
but today I also tried generating a single-precision plot3D grid file  
and solution file and still could not read it in paraview.

Which plot3D file format is supported in paraview and does paraview  
only support single-precision?  Also, which options must I select when  
reading in the plot3D file?

How can I go about requesting a more robust plot3D capability in a  
future version of paraview?  I would really like to see the ability to  
read in plot3D function files (3D, multigrid, generated froma bunch of  
x-y planes: see pages 166 & 167 of the plot3D User Manual), which is  
what my Fortran-based CFD post-processor writes out.

I can provide the Fortran source that generates my test plot3D binary  
grid and solution files, plus the actual plot3D grid and solution  
files themselves.

Sincerely,
Rick


On Mar 18, 2010, at 2:47 PM, Berk Geveci wrote:

> Hey Rick,
>
> Can you post the header part of an ASCII Plot3D file that you have?
> ParaView reads only one flavor of Plot3D so I want to make sure that
> that is what you have.
>
> -berk
>
> On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 7:54 PM, Rick Burnes <rick.burnes at mchsi.com>  
> wrote:
>> Yes, I have also generated an ASCII plot3D file, which I can get  
>> paraview to
>> read.  However, paraview does not correctly interpret the grid  
>> file.  The
>> geometry I create with my simple Fortran code is a cube.  Paraview
>> successfully reads both the ASCII grid and data files, but when I  
>> view it in
>> paraview the geometry is incorrect.  Tecplot does not have this  
>> problem with
>> the same grid and data files.  I am interested in any suggestions  
>> on the
>> right combination of options to choose when reading this plot3D  
>> file into
>> paraview, but I have not been able to find the correct combination of
>> options to read a plot3D binary grid and data file.  In addition,  
>> since
>> paraview does not display the correct geometry when I have it read  
>> an ASCII
>> version of the same grid and data plot3D files I believe there is  
>> more to
>> this than just choosing the right options.
>> There are a number of different plot3D formats and I have tried  
>> reading a
>> number of these into paraview, all with the same results.
>> Sincerely,
>> Rick
>>
>> On Mar 17, 2010, at 4:26 PM, da wrote:
>>
>> Have you tried generating an ascii file from Fortran and looking at  
>> it? I
>> don't believe there should be a difference whether its generated from
>> Fortran or C/C++ code.
>> Tecplot's reader automatically detects the options of the plot3d  
>> file -
>> while Paraview does not: its most likely the case that an option is  
>> set
>> incorrectly.
>>
>> On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 3:29 PM, Rick Burnes  
>> <rick.burnes at mchsi.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Paraview appears to have a limited ability certain plot3D files  
>>> that were
>>> likely generated from C/C++ code, but is unable to read plot3D files
>>> generated from Fortran code.  When I open a Fortran generated  
>>> plot3D file I
>>> select "plot3D" as the file type and then select the following three
>>> options: "binary file", "has byte count" and if needed  
>>> "multigrid".  I have
>>> tried various combinations of these options without success.  I  
>>> wrote a
>>> short and simple Fortran program to generate a small test plot3D  
>>> grid file
>>> and data file, which I can successfully read with tecplot, but is  
>>> not
>>> readable in paraview 3.6.1.  Has anyone had success reading Fortran
>>> generated plot3D files with a recent version of paraview and if  
>>> so, what
>>> plot3D format was used and what paraview file options were selected?
>>>
>>> This is for paraview 3.6.1 on a mac running leopard.  However, I  
>>> run into
>>> the same problem on the windows version of paraview as well.
>>>
>>> Here is the error message I receive:
>>>
>>> ERROR: In
>>> /Users/kitware/ParaViewReleases/ParaView-3.6/ParaView3/VTK/IO/ 
>>> vtkMultiBlockPLOT3DReader.cxx,
>>> line 783
>>> vtkMultiBlockPLOT3DReader (0x223c4620): Error reading geometry file.
>>>
>>>
>>> ERROR: In
>>> /Users/kitware/ParaViewReleases/ParaView-3.6/ParaView3/VTK/ 
>>> Filtering/vtkExecutive.cxx,
>>> line 757
>>> vtkCompositeDataPipeline (0x223c4590): Algorithm
>>> vtkMultiBlockPLOT3DReader(0x223c4620) returned failure for request:
>>> vtkInformation (0x2245e940)
>>>  Debug: Off
>>>  Modified Time: 79689
>>>  Reference Count: 1
>>>  Registered Events: (none)
>>>  Request: REQUEST_DATA
>>>  FORWARD_DIRECTION: 0
>>>  ALGORITHM_AFTER_FORWARD: 1
>>>  FROM_OUTPUT_PORT: 0
>>>
>>> Also, are there any plans to improve paraview's ability to read  
>>> plot3D
>>> files?
>>>
>>> Sincerely,
>>> Rick
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Powered by www.kitware.com
>>>
>>> Visit other Kitware open-source projects at
>>> http://www.kitware.com/opensource/opensource.html
>>>
>>> Please keep messages on-topic and check the ParaView Wiki at:
>>> http://paraview.org/Wiki/ParaView
>>>
>>> Follow this link to subscribe/unsubscribe:
>>> http://www.paraview.org/mailman/listinfo/paraview
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Powered by www.kitware.com
>>
>> Visit other Kitware open-source projects at
>> http://www.kitware.com/opensource/opensource.html
>>
>> Please keep messages on-topic and check the ParaView Wiki at:
>> http://paraview.org/Wiki/ParaView
>>
>> Follow this link to subscribe/unsubscribe:
>> http://www.paraview.org/mailman/listinfo/paraview
>>
>>

More information about the ParaView mailing list