[Paraview] Live data source for co-processing in Paraview version 3.14.1

Fri Apr 5 15:48:24 EDT 2013

Hi Andy,

Many thanks for all the information that certainly clears up my confusion although I have a follow-up question to confirm with you on the last part regarding live feed. Let me split the question up into the following two scenarios:

(1)    No live feed, but only in-situ viz to write data and rendered image for each time step from the simulation code. In this scenario, I only need to set up the pipeline, add adaptor calls in the simulation code to do co-processing for each time step and output data for desired time steps, and build and run the simulation code that are linked with Paraview coprocessing or Catalyst. In this case, there is no need to run pvserver and paraview client, everything related to in-situ/coprocessing viz is integrated into the simulation code, is it right?

(2)    Need live feed and live viz while doing in-situ viz to monitor simulation in progress and possibly can influence simulation by changing some parameters through paraview client. In this case, I need to run paraview client and connect to the live visualization through Tools->Connect to Catalyst GUI menu, where I need to input a port number to connect to the Catalyst. I am not clear on this part. Do I need to run the simulation code linked with Paraview coprocessing/Catalyst, then run pvserver on some port somehow linked to the simulation code, which in turns can be connected back to the client? I cannot find any specific information on the process of doing live feed in an in-situ live viz scenario, so it'd be great help if you can point me to some resources or just briefly provide high-level info on how this works.

Looking forward to the Catalyst Users Guide coming out soon and thanks again for all the expert information!!!

Best regards,

Hong

From: Andy Bauer [mailto:andy.bauer at kitware.com]
Sent: Friday, April 05, 2013 2:21 PM
To: Hong Yi
Cc: paraview at paraview.org
Subject: Re: [Paraview] Live data source for co-processing in Paraview version 3.14.1

Hi Hong,
That Catalyst Users Guide is still a couple of weeks away.
To clear up your confusion in the meantime, Catalyst is really a stripped down version of ParaView built with co-processing. The idea behind Catalyst is that there's a lot of stuff in ParaView that isn't needed for in situ analysis, especially depending on what the desired outputs are. So Catalyst's role is to reduce the size of the libraries that a simulation code needs to link to. For example, if you're not interested in generating screenshots you would have a lot of overhead for all of the rendering parts of ParaView and some GL implementation. Catalyst would allow you to not include rendering components then. The live feed, Connect to Catalyst, will work with either Catalyst or a full blown ParaView with co-processing build. In order to connect your simulation to the ParaView GUI through the live feed you should only need to run your simulation code linked with ParaView/Catalyst and a generated Python script which sets things up for live-viz.
Regards,
Andy

On Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 12:45 PM, Hong Yi <hongyi at renci.org<mailto:hongyi at renci.org>> wrote:
Hi Andy,

I am wondering whether the Catalyst Users Guide is very close to be out and ready to download, perhaps in the next couple of days hopefully? Although the user guide would most likely answer my question below, I'd like to ask it now since I expect it will have quick answer which would clear up my doubts quickly. Specifically, I am not sure the relationship between Catalyst and the coprocessing libraries included with Paraview build/install. From what I read, the coprocessing library is called Catalyst in the new ParaView v3.98. I have downloaded catalyst source tree from http://catalyst.paraview.org/catalyst/resources/software.html and built it into a separate directory from Paraview as instructed.  However, when I built Paraview itself, I can enable coprocessing and all needed adaptors which will generate CoProcessing directory that includes adaptors and CoProcessors and seems it already includes coprocessing library without a separate Catalyst install. I am thinking if I only do in-situ visualization without live data source feed into paraview client for live monitoring, I might not need a separate catalyst install, is this right? As you instructed in this email thread on live data source, I can use Tools->Connect to Catalyst GUI menu to connect to live data source which definitely requires a sepate Catalyst install. I know I will have to input a port number to accept connections from catalyst, so I think I will have to run catalyst also separately from the catalyst installed directory such as pvserver in the bin directory under catalyst install which would feed live data source into the paraview client, right? If so, in this case, I am thinking I probably do not need to run another pvserver instance as Paraview server from the Paraview install directory that the client connects to, but rather to connect to the pvserver instance from Catalyst as live data source? I am hoping to frame my question with not too much confusion, and hoping to clear up the confusion in my head by some quick answer from you.

Again, looking forward to the Catalyst Users Guide to be out soon!

Thanks,

Hong

From: Andy Bauer [mailto:andy.bauer at kitware.com<mailto:andy.bauer at kitware.com>]
Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2013 3:25 PM

To: Hong Yi
Cc: paraview at paraview.org<mailto:paraview at paraview.org>
Subject: Re: [Paraview] Live data source for co-processing in Paraview version 3.14.1

I'm working on a Catalyst Users Guide that should cover everything you need. It will probably be ready in a couple of weeks. I'll post to the paraview list when it's ready and where to download at.

Andy
On Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 3:17 PM, Hong Yi <hongyi at renci.org<mailto:hongyi at renci.org>> wrote:
Hi Andy,

Many thanks for the useful information. This confirms my suspicion on the live data source after I see information on catalyst, so I'll just go ahead to upgrade my development environment to the latest Paraview version 3.98.1 to be able to leverage catalyst co-processing library for my in-situ work. I have read up a lot of information on coprocessing in ParaView so far, so I think I'll just need to get a specific example running next for a good understanding of specifics, then I can get to specifics such as developing adaptors to interface with the simulation code. At that point, I might have more specific questions.

Thanks again,

Hong

From: Andy Bauer [mailto:andy.bauer at kitware.com<mailto:andy.bauer at kitware.com>]
Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2013 1:59 PM
To: Hong Yi
Cc: paraview at paraview.org<mailto:paraview at paraview.org>
Subject: Re: [Paraview] Live data source for co-processing in Paraview version 3.14.1

Hi Hong,

The live data source that was done with ParaView 3.14 really was just a demo. It's evolved and has been improved for ParaView 3.98. Not it's in the Tools->Connect to Catalyst GUI menu.

Catalyst is indeed the evolution of what we called the co-processing tools in older versions of ParaView.

If you can give an example of what you're trying to do for in-situ work, I can probably point you in the proper direction.

Andy
On Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 11:45 AM, Hong Yi <hongyi at renci.org<mailto:hongyi at renci.org>> wrote:
Hello,

I built Paraview server version 3.14.1 on a HPC cluster with all co-processing-related flags turned on including enabling co-processing, all adaptors, and plugins, etc., and built Paraview client/server with no MPI on a local linux machine with co-processing enabled as well. Then I connect the Paraview client running on my local linux machine to the Paraview server running on the HPC cluster to visualize a phasta-generated mesh data on the HPC cluster. All works except that I don't find "Live data source" from paraview "Source" menu. I have not really tried coprocessing library yet, but it is in my next to-do list. In the meanwhile, I'd like to get some advice from this list regarding this missing "Live data source" from Paraview client GUI in case I missed something or did not do something correctly.

On a related question, from http://catalyst.paraview.org/ I don't see specific information on whether the coprocessing library in earlier version such as 3.14.1 is an earlier version of this catalyst. It appears to me this catalyst library only works for version 3.98 and can be built into paraview 3.98 by generating catalyst source tree and building it into paraview. For earlier paraview version 3.14.1, I cannot leverage this latest catalyst source since it only works with version 3.98, is this correct?

Thanks for any information and explanation. I am trying to get myself up to speed on in-situ visualization for large scale simulation, so any related information on in-situ visualization is very much appreciated!

Hong

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